MEMORANDUM

Memorandum

Memorandum

Gideon v. Wainwright

In the 1963 landmark decision Gideon v. Wainwright, the U.S. Supreme Court expressed an opinion that had major consequences upon the interpretation of civil liberties and the application of the Bill of Rights to the state government. Mr. Gideon, a man in Florida, faced a misdemeanor change. When the case was brought to court he asked the court if they could appoint him an attorney because he could not afford to get one on his own. The judge in the case denied him that request because he was not facing a capital offense (Neubauer, and Stephen, 2007).

The judge based his verdict on the Betts v Brady rule. The rule stated that the court must appoint an attorney if the person could not read or faced a murder trail. Since Mr. Gideon did not fit the rule he could not be appointed an attorney for his case. He did his best to defend himself but failed and was sentenced to five years in prison. He filed a habeus corpus to appeal the verdict because he felt the sentence was unjust. It was denied in the Florida State Supreme Court but since the case raised an important issue it went to the US Supreme Court for an answer (Smits, Dotevall, 2006). In order to make this colossal decision they had to look at different theories such as natural law and legal realism in order to make a right verdict.

In the case of Gideon v Wainwright, natural law was the excellent theory to use by the Justices to reach their verdict to overturn the Betts rule because the fundamental value of a fair trail includes the right to counsel rule.

Theses same natural values can be found in Gideon v Wainwright. In this case the Justice Black looked at the constitution to see if the right of counsel is a fundamental right or not. The constitution and reason is the fundamental values that Justice Black used to reach his verdict. In the constitution, it states that everyone have the right to fair trial. Justice Black understood that a fair trial can not be achieved without attorney. He believed that without an attorney the person is denied their fundamental right and thus can not get a fair trail. Justice Black use natural law to make decision to overrule the Betts rule (Smits, Dotevall, 2006).

In this case, Justice Douglas used legal realism to reach his verdict. He stated that no one would allow Mr. Gideon to defend someone else so then why should they allow him defend himself. He also brought up the fact the State of Florida spends lots tax dollars on prosecutors because they feel it's important to have. He also noted that judges in cases needs to have a neutral position not be advocate for one side. Judges should not determine if the defendant is unintelligent to understand legal situation that they are facing (Neubauer, and Stephen, 2007). He noted that the Betts rule does not work anymore and something ...