TRUMPETING CHANGE

GIDEON V. WAINWRIGHT 372 U.S. 355, 1963 RIGHT TO COUNSEL

Historically, the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court have tried diligently to do a good job—but they are human, and they make mistakes. One of their biggest, in 1942, was Betts v. Brady. Scholars rank the decision 21 years later to overturn that ruling in Gideon v. Wainwright among the Court’s dozen or so most important. Gideon concerns a simple, determined man with a checkered past and a compelling claim that American justice had done him an injustice. The issue: if a defendant cannot afford a lawyer, does the government have an obligation to provide that representation?

The topic is as old