Gideon at 50

March 18^th marked the 50^th anniversary of one of the seminal cases in U.S. Constitutional law. Gideon defined the rights defendants have to counsel after arrest. The decision created a seismic shift in American criminal jurisprudence. That it began with one semi-literate, itinerant man and a letter to the U.S. Supreme Court made the case even more astounding.

            Gideon was a fifty-something, white male who’d spent too much of his life behind bars, going in and out for months – and years – at a time. He was accused of a break in. At his arraignment he asked the court to appoint him a lawyer. The Florida judge denied his request. Florida – as did most states in the early 1960’s believed the 6^th Amendment right to counsel (for indigent defendants) only applied to serious (i.e. Capital or life sentence) felonies.

            Without counsel, Gideon stood no chance. He was convicted and shipped back to prison. From his prison cell he wrote in poor grammar a heartfelt letter to the United States Supreme Court which landed on Justice Abe Fortis’s desk. Gideon said, “I am a poor, innocent man who asked the judge to give me a lawyer so I could clear my name …”

            Gideon’s case was accepted by the Court and one of America’s most prestigious law firms was appointed to argue his case. And it happened, the United States Supreme Court agreed with Mr. Gideon. Any time a criminal defendant is faced with a loss of freedom (i.e. jail or prison) the right to counsel exists.

            Gideon was supposed to change the landscape of criminal justice in America. The Court understood that the power of the State (or federal government) to take a person’s freedom was so significant and that the right to be “innocent until proven guilty” so important that citizens – regardless of their financial ability – are entitled to adequate, legal representation.

            Gideon was a remarkable statement on the power of the individual, the rights of the accused, in the face of a larger, more powerful state seeking to take his freedom. But, Gideon has failed to live up to its words.

            There perhaps is no more lonely feeling than standing before the judge’s bench to hear charges read against you. And, no matter what the law says about “innocent until proven guilty,” there is an almost immediate, visceral public reaction that says “the guy is guilty.” After all the police would never arrest the wrong person; prosecutors would never let ego or politics, or the public’s bloodlust dictate how a case was handled.

            The truth is, police and prosecutors lie, cheat, and steal just like the criminals; the issue usually isn’t about justice, it’s about getting a conviction. The state has virtually unlimited power and money to prosecute a defendant.

            Second, money matters. If you have resources and can mount a defense, the odds of you receiving a more favorable plea deal – or acquittal – grow. The system takes advantage of the poor, the uneducated, the gullible. The law allows the police to lie during their interrogation of a suspect.

            Third, the law is a highly technical field. The average citizen doesn’t understand what elements the state must prove to get a conviction. The average citizen doesn’t understand that being helpful and answering questions truthfully usually leads to words being twisted. The average citizen doesn’t realize that rights exist – not at the allowance of the government like a privilege – from God and are a specific, direct limitation on the power of government.

            Gideon has failed because we live in a country where more people are incarcerated than during Stalin’s days in the Soviet Union. Gideon has failed because lawyers get overwhelmed with huge numbers of indigent defendants. Lawyers cut deals without investigating a case because there’s no money in defending a poor person.

            Gideon has failed because America is a nation of a “gotcha” news reporting. We exercise schadenfraude judgment, gleefully, smugly basking in other’s failures and arrest.

            I have met hundreds of men who – had a less overwhelmed attorney handled their case instead of a young public defender with a plea deal at the arraignment – with adequate, caring defense counsel would not be in here.

            Gideon was an amazing, profound statement about what America believed justice should be. That the country failed so miserably to live up to that ideal is a scarlet mark on this nation.