Gideon v. Wainwright

Gideon v. Wainwright 372 US 335 (1963) is a landmark case in United States Supreme Court history of the latter half of the twentieth century.

Background

The Supreme Court had earlier ruled in Powell v. Alabama 287 US 45 (1932), the famous case of the Scottsboro Boys, that the right to counsel was essential to the safeguarding of American freedoms, but left it up to the states just how far this right extended. In Betts v. Brady 316 US 455 (1942), the Court modified this doctrine slightly, ruling that whether or not a lawyer was required would depend on the circumstances of each case. Over the next twenty years, the Court heard several more cases, and in all of them ruled that in fact a lawyer was required. This view had not changed by the early 1960s.