Brady (1942) Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U.S. 335 (1963), is a landmark United States Supreme Court case in which the Court unanimously held that in criminal cases states are required under the Sixth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution to provide an attorney to defendants who are unable to afford their own attorneys.
Alabama (1961) Gideon v. Wainwright (1963) Anders v. California (1967) Argersinger v. Hamlin (1972) Gagnon v. Scarpelli (1973) Scott v. Illinois (1979) Pennsylvania v. Finley (1987) Nichols v. United States (1994) Alabama v. Shelton (2002) Glasser v. United States (1942) Strickland v. Washington (1984) Nix v. Whiteside (1986) Kimmelman v.
The time shortage also means that public defenders almost never take a case to a trial. Across the country, 94 percent of convictions in state courts are from plea bargains, according to a 2012 Supreme Court ruling that confirmed defendants’ rights to be represented by competent counsel not just at trial but also during plea negotiations.
6 captivating court cases that had Americans glued to their screens 1 O.J. Simpson. ... 2 Ted Bundy. While the O.J. ... 3 Casey Anthony. America was riveted by the Casey Anthony case from the moment she was arrested for allegedly killing her two-year-old daughter, Caylee, in 2008. 4 George Zimmerman. ... 5 Scott Peterson. ... 6 Timothy McVeigh. ...
This case involved an in-house attorney who complained to the US Department of Energy (DOE) about discrimination at her client. To further her case, she gave information to the DOE about other complaints of discrimination at the company. Even though she prevailed in her jury trial, the ruling was reversed.
Gideon v. WainwrightWhen the Supreme Court first recognized a constitutional right to counsel in 1963 in its landmark ruling in Gideon v. Wainwright, the justices did not require states to provide any particular remedy or procedure to guarantee that indigent defendants could fully exercise that right.
Decision: In 1963, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously in favor of Gideon, guaranteeing the right to legal counsel for criminal defendants in federal and state courts. Following the decision, Gideon was given another trial with an appointed lawyer and was acquitted of the charges.
In 1972, in Argersinger v. Hamlin, the Supreme Court further extended the right to legal counsel to include any defendant charged with a crime punishable by imprisonment. Gideon v. Wainwright was part of the Supreme Court's innovative approach to criminal justice in the 1950s and 1960s.
Wainwright is responsible for changing the criminal justice system by granting criminal defendants the right to an attorney, even if they can't afford one on their own.
On June 19, 1961, the Supreme Court issued a 6–3 decision in favor of Mapp that overturned her conviction and held that the exclusionary rule applies to American states as well as the federal government.
Escobedo v. Illinois, 378 U.S. 478 (1964), was a United States Supreme Court case holding that criminal suspects have a right to counsel during police interrogations under the Sixth Amendment.
Gideon v. WainwrightIn 1972, in Argersinger v. Hamlin, the Supreme Court further extended the right to legal counsel to include any defendant charged with a crime punishable by imprisonment. Gideon v. Wainwright was part of the Supreme Court's innovative approach to criminal justice in the 1950s and 1960s.
The most notable of these cases was Gideon V. Wainwright. In Gideon, the Court held that an indigent person accused of a serious crime was entitled to the appointment of defense counsel at state expense. Providing indigent criminal defendants with access to effective legal counsel is critical to ensuring due process.
Summary. On January 30, 1976, the Supreme Court issued a per curiam opinion in Buckley v. Valeo, the landmark case involving the constitutionality of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 (FECA), as amended in 1974, and the Presidential Election Campaign Fund Act.
Miranda v. Arizona was a significant Supreme Court case that ruled that a defendant's statements to authorities are inadmissible in court unless the defendant has been informed of their right to have an attorney present during questioning and an understanding that anything they say will be held against them.
The Death Penalty and the Eighth Amendment Furman v. Georgia (1972) was a landmark Supreme Court case in which a majority of justices ruled that existing death penalty schemes in states nationwide were arbitrary and inconsistent, violating the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
The Supreme Court cases Gideon v. Wainright and Miranda v. Arizona questioned the integrity of America's legal system and the verdicts of said cases helped to ensure that the rights of the accused would be upheld, while making sure that the accused would get a fair shot to prove their innocence.
After nearly 11 hours of deliberation, the jury acquitted her of the murder charge, but found her guilty of four misdemeanor counts of giving false information to law enforcement (two of which were later dropped). It was a verdict that completely shocked the nation.
Jury selection proved a controversial process, as it was difficult to narrow down a pool of potential jurors who could remain neutral amid the ‘round-the-clock coverage of Simpson’s arrest and beyond surrounding the murder case.
After sifting through 22 days of testimony from 160 witnesses, jurors found McVeigh guilty on all 11 counts of his federal indictment, to which his emotionless response sent chills down the spines of everyone watching. At the recommendation of the jury, the judge sentenced McVeigh to death.
Bundy was actually on trial multiple times—he managed to escape a courtroom and jail before his final capture and trial. Ultimately, his actions resulted in three separate murder convictions, all of which were accompanied by death sentences. He was executed by electrocution in 1989.
The proceedings included three weeks of testimony and a litany of expert witnesses for both the prosecution and the defense.
This coverage was so intense that it caused for many delays to the trial, which ended up spanning 11 months. Witnesses began selling their stories to the tabloid press, which disqualified them from testifying in the hearing.
He was arrested on April 18, 2003. Peterson’s trial ran from June 2004 through March 2005, and it endured many shocking twists and turns, including three separate versions of a jury panel, with jurors being removed for various reasons throughout the deliberation process.
That is partly because there has never been a reliable standard for how much time is enough.
In total, Mr. Talaska needed to do the work of five full-time lawyers to serve all of his clients.
The study found that defenders spent the recommended amount of time, 30 minutes, on social work.
The time shortage also means that public defenders almost never take a case to a trial. Across the country, 94 percent of convictions in state courts are from plea bargains, according to a 2012 Supreme Court ruling that confirmed defendants’ rights to be represented by competent counsel not just at trial but also during plea negotiations.
Using a rigorous survey method developed for the military by the RAND Corporation, Mr. Hanlon and his allies asked private lawyers and public defenders how much time it should take to represent different types of criminal cases, including hours spent analyzing the relevant law, the prosecution’s evidence and the potential consequences of going to trial.
One of the leading voices in public interest law for decades, Mr. Hanlon was a partner at a large national law firm, and is now general counsel of the National Association for Public Defense.
But Judge Brady declined to intervene, saying that doing so would make his court “the overseer of the Orleans Parish criminal court system, a result explicitly condemned by the United States Supreme Court.”
Wainwright was one of a series of Supreme Court decisions that confirmed the right of defendants in criminal proceedings, upon request, to have counsel appointed both during the trial and on appeal. In the subsequent cases Massiah v. United States, 377 U.S. 201 (1964), and Miranda v.
Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U.S. 335 (1963), was a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in which the Court rule d that the Sixth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution requires U.S. states to provide attorneys to criminal defendants who are unable to afford their own. The case extended the right to counsel, which had been found under the Fifth and Sixth Amendments to impose requirements on the federal government, by imposing those requirements upon the states as well.
In his petition, he claimed his Sixth Amendment right had been violated because the judge refused to appoint counsel. The Florida Supreme Court denied Gideon’s petition. Later, from his cell at the Florida State Prison in Raiford, making use of the prison library and writing in pencil on prison stationery, Gideon appealed to the United States Supreme Court in a suit against the Secretary of the Florida Department of Corrections, H. G. Cochran. Cochran retired and was replaced by Louie L. Wainwright before the Supreme Court heard the case. Gideon argued in his appeal that he had been denied counsel and therefore that his Sixth Amendment rights, as applied to the states by the Fourteenth Amendment, had been violated.
At the conclusion of the trial, the jury returned a guilty verdict. The court sentenced Gideon to serve five years in the state prison.
Before Gideon, civil litigants were able to access counsel only based on the following three stringent criteria: whether the case had implications had any implications for a private corporation; whether their not receiving counsel would render the trial unfair or in some way compromised in procedure; and whether the case affected the government's interests. After Gideon, many more litigants were eligible for counsel, giving rise to the "Civil Gideon movement".
Many changes have been made in the prosecution and legal representation of indigent defendants since the Gideon decision. The decision created and then expanded the need for public defenders which had previously been rare. For example, immediately following the decision, Florida required public defenders in all of the state's circuit courts. The need for more public defenders also led to a need to ensure that they were properly trained in criminal defense in order to allow defendants to receive as fair a trial as possible. Several states and counties followed suit. Washington D.C., for instance, has created a training program for their public defenders, who must receive rigorous training before they are allowed to represent defendants, and must continue their training in order to remain current in criminal law, procedure, and practices. In 2010, a public defender's office in the South Bronx, The Bronx Defenders, created the Center for Holistic Defense, which has helped other public defender offices from Montana to Massachusetts, developed a model of public defense called holistic defense or holistic advocacy. In it, criminal defense attorneys work on interdisciplinary teams, alongside civil attorneys, social workers, and legal advocates to help clients with not only direct but also collateral aspects of their criminal cases. More recently the American Bar Association and the National Legal Aid and Defender Association have set minimum training requirements, caseload levels, and experience requirements for defenders. There is often controversy whether caseloads set upon public defenders give them enough time to sufficiently defend their clients. Some criticize the mindset in which public defense lawyers encourage their clients to simply plead guilty. Some defenders say this is intended to lessen their own workload, while others would say it is intended to obtain a lighter sentence by negotiating a plea bargain as compared with going to trial and perhaps having a harsher sentence imposed. Tanya Greene, an ACLU lawyer, has said that that is why 90 to 95 percent of defendants do plead guilty: "You've got so many cases, limited resources, and there's no relief. You go to work, you get more cases. You have to triage."
Gideon appeared in court alone as he was too poor to afford counsel, whereupon the following conversation took place:
Docket Number: 15-cr-20471 (S.D. Fla.) On May 1, 2020, Francesco Guerra pleaded guilty to conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud, and attempted extortion in connection with his supervision of call centers in Peru that threatened consumers across the United States into paying fraudulent settlements for nonexistent debts.
The company makes gels that hospitals and other caregivers use to take ultrasound scans. The complaint alleges that the defendants are in violation of current good manufacturing practice and quality-system requirements, and are marketing medical devices without either clearance or approval. In February 2012, a Michigan hospital traced infections among 16 surgical patients to a specific gel made by Pharmaceutical Innovations. FDA testing on samples of the gel tested positive for bacterial contamination. The relevant lots of that particular gel were seized in a seizure lawsuit the United States filed in 2012; the company is actively contesting that lawsuit. In a third lawsuit, the company sued the FDA in early 2014 for denying it an export certificate attesting that it is in full compliance with the FDCA.
On June 5, 2015, the United States filed an injunction action in the District of New Jersey against Acino Products, LLC (“Acino”) and its owner, Ravi Deshpande, to prevent the distribution of unapproved and misbranded drugs. Acino manufactures hydrocortisone acetate 25 mg suppositories, which it labels and sells as prescription drugs. Because Acino has never submitted an application for FDA approval of the drugs, they have never been found to be safe and effective. Further, because they are prescription drugs, their labels by definition cannot bear adequate directions for use by a layperson. Thus, they are misbranded within the meaning of the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (“FDCA"). In conjunction with the filing of the complaint, the defendants agreed to settle the litigation and be bound by a consent decree of permanent injunction that prohibits them from committing violations of the FDCA. Once entered by the court, the consent decree will require Acino to cease all manufacture and distribution of the unapproved and misbranded suppositories, and to destroy any such suppositories already in existence.
The case involves a man who’d voluntarily agreed to speak with the police.
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that when a suspect asks for an attorney, the interrogation must end and a lawyer must be provided. But the police disregarded Demesme’s request, and the trial court ruled that the statements he subsequently made can be used to convict him. Advertisement.
If the suspect’s statement is not an unambiguous or unequivocal request for counsel, the officers have no obligation to stop questioning him. … [H]e must articulate his desire to have counsel present sufficiently clearly that a reasonable police officer in the circumstances would understand the statement to be a request for an attorney.
In doing so, Crichton (and the trial court) may well have run afoul of Davis v. United States, the controlling U.S. Supreme Court precedent on this matter. In Davis, the suspect had told his interrogators: “Maybe I should talk to a lawyer.” No lawyer was provided, the interview continued, and the suspect made incriminating statements that were later used to secure his conviction. The Supreme Court held that none of this violated the Constitution. It reasoned that, in order to invoke his Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights, “the suspect must unambiguously request counsel.” The court elaborated:
The Supreme Court can forestall this constitutional subversion by taking Demesme’s case—presuming he appeals—and clarifying that a “reasonable police officer” may not deliberately ignore the intent of a suspect who colloquially but unequivocally asks for a lawyer.
He need only get the point across. Yet because Crichton refused to interpret Demesme’s words as a reasonable police officer surely would, he asserted that no constitutional violation occurred.
This means that citizens have the right to a competent lawyer. Adequate representation not only covers the right to have an attorney present at a trial in a court of law but also that the lawyer is competent in arguing cases in a court of law. If a defendant is found to have had an incompetent lawyer during trial and the verdict of the trial is ‘guilty' then the ‘guilty' verdict can be thrown out because of the incompetent lawyer. To prove that the incompetence of a lawyer hurt the trial so much that it cannot go on two things must be proven:
If defendants in a court case are not provided adequate representation then their case can either be thrown out, re-tried, or have a verdict thrown out because of the incompetence of the lawyer. If a lawyer is not provided for a defendant when one should be, the defendant can prove incompetence on the part of the state or jurisdiction where the case is being heard.
If a defendant in a court case cannot financially provide themselves with their own legal counsel then the state or jurisdiction that they have been arrested within will provide them with an attorney. It is mentioned in the Miranda Rights that are read to a suspect when he or she is arrested.
The stages of the trial are: 1 Arraignment and or plea 2 Bail and detention hearings 3 Motions 4 Hearings 5 Interviews and conferences 6 Obtaining and reviewing records 7 Legal research and brief writing 8 Travel time 9 Investigative work 10 Experts 11 Trials and appeals
If and when an attorney is appointed to a citizen of the United States, the fees of the attorney must be made known up front to the defendant. The court will make public what each phase of the trial will cost for the defendant and for the state that is providing the attorney.
A lawyer was helping run the family business, which was controlled by his mother and shared with his siblings. There was no engagement letter. As the mother started aging and fading, there were disputes among the children (the lawyer and his siblings) how things should be handled.
This case involved an in-house attorney who complained to the US Department of Energy (DOE) about discrimination at her client. To further her case, she gave information to the DOE about other complaints of discrimination at the company. Even though she prevailed in her jury trial, the ruling was reversed. The Fifth Circuit held that there was no exception to the ethical rules that allowed her to disclose information regarding other wrongs without client consent, which she did not have. The verdict was reversed and the case dismissed based on the lawyer's misconduct.
Int'l, 78 S.W.3d 852 (Tenn. 2002) demonstrated the burden on counsel, co-workers, and the client that can arise from the unlicensed practice of law in-house. An associate in-house counsel discovered that the general counsel was not licensed to practice law in Tennessee where the general counsel officed. She reported this first to the general counsel and later to the company's board of directors. After considerable time, the general counsel was still not admitted, so the in-house obtained her own legal advice concerning her ethical obligations and felt compelled to report the unlicensed practice of law to appropriate State agency. The reporting counsel was later fired and brought suit for common-law retaliatory discharge. No lawyer should want to subject their client to this kind of embarrassment, and this was all driven by the general counsel's refusal to become licensed in the state where she practiced.
This is a dream case for commentators on in-house ethics because it raises two of the most common "defenses" asserted by in-house lawyers when pushing back against ethical concerns. Mr. Rosefielde was in-house for several small companies owned by Mr. Kaye.
The court held that there was no attorney-client privilege for communications between the in-house counsel and the client because the in-house counsel was not licensed and, therefore, not an "attorney.". There is some split of authority on this issue.
Practice tip: In-house counsel have to be vigilant regarding possible conflicts when representing anyone other than the company.
In the dispute, it was determined that the lawyer's notes were not privileged as to any of the companies in the dispute, as he was each company's lawyer. It was also held that the common-interest doctrine did not apply to protect the notes, because that doctrine requires the involvement of multiple lawyers.
Speaking of funny judges, Judge Rosemarie Aquilina had us in tears when she told us about an exotic dancer who, having pleaded guilty on a drug charge, was sentenced to wearing an ankle monitor. Just a few days after sentencing, however, the woman was back in the courtroom, seeking an exception because the ankle monitor was kind of “ruining her vibe” at the strip club. In response, Judge Aquilina offered a veritable Solomon-esque solution: “Bedazzle that thing to match your outfits. Motion denied.”
More legal hilarity comes from Frank Caprio, Providence’s Chief Municipal Judge in Rhode Island and now the star of Caught in Providence, who, “judging” by the stories he recently shared with Reader’s Digest, has clearly has heard everything.
Another man accused of speeding seemed really, well, anxious, as he stood before Judge Caprio. “Is there something you want to say?” Judge Caprio asked the man. “Actually, yes,” the man replied. “My wife and I are trying to have a baby, and she’s ovulating right now.” What could be said beyond, “Thank you for sharing”? Actually, these might just be the funniest lawyer jokes ever.
When all was said and done (and won), the client asked to be put in touch with the expert. Why? Because he wanted to know exactly when he would die and how… as if the expert were a psychic and not an actuary.
A young man named George had surgery to correct an ugly scar on his hand. The surgeon grafted skin from George’s chest onto his hand… except George had a hairy chest…so now he had a hairy hand as well. George sued the surgeon and was awarded “the difference in value between a 100 percent good hand… and a hairy hand.”
T’was a mugging of poor Uncle Sam.
Lawyers actually have a lot of fun doing what they do, and I should know. I'm a lawyer. Check out these hilarious stories from lawyers and judges. You'll never look at a court of law the same way again!