W. Fred Turner | |
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Spouse(s) | Helen Turner |
On June 25, 1962, the Supreme Court appointed Abe Fortas to represent Clarence Gideon in the case then known as Gideon v Cochran. 5 I was the attorney for the state of Florida in the case.
Clarence Gideon did not have a lawyer at his first trial, in 1961, but from that point on he had the very best representation that our legal system could provide. He was assisted in his case by the American Civil Liberties Union, 57 which was an amicus in the case, and by the attorneys general of 22 states, who filed an amicus brief in his behalf in the Supreme Court, 58 and by others including a law student 59 at the Arnold, Fortas & Porter firm. But the principal lawyers who represented him were Abe Fortas, Abe Krash, and W. Fred Turner. We should never forget their contributions to this historic case.
He was wearing a brown suit, rather than the coat and tails worn by some lawyers who often appear in the Supreme Court. (I was wearing a dark blue suit.) He was in his early 50s, short and dapper-looking, with an unusual, deep voice. Anthony Lewis described him in the book, Gideon’s Trumpet:
Judge Robert McCrary, the circuit judge who tried Clarence Gideon both times, asked Gideon which lawyer he wanted. Turner was known as the best criminal defense lawyer in that area, and Gideon requested him. Turner was appointed to represent Gideon and was successful in obtaining the acquittal at the second trial.
Turner was appointed to represent Gideon and was successful in obtaining the acquittal at the second trial. I met Fred Turner for the first time at a dinner meeting of the St. Andrew Bay American Inn of Court, in a restaurant on Panama City Beach, Fla. It was September 14, 2000.
Turner did a masterful job of defending Gideon at the 1963 trial, thereby proving the truth of one of the underlying assumptions of the Supreme Court’s decision - that being represented by counsel in a criminal case makes a tremendous difference. Between 2000 and his death in November 2003, Turner and I became friends.
Between the time the case was argued (January 1963) and the time it was decided (March 1963), H.G. Cochran was replaced by Louie Wainwright. As the attorney for the state, I wrote a letter to the clerk, advising that this change had taken place, and when the opinion was released the case was called Gideon v.
Clarence Earl Gideon was born in Hannibal, Missouri. His father, Charles Roscoe Gideon, died when he was three. His mother, Virginia Gregory Gideon, married Marrion Anderson shortly after.
On June 3, 1961, $5 in change and a few bottles of beer and soda were stolen from the Pool Room, a pool hall and beer bar that belonged to Ira Strickland Jr. Strickland also alleged that $50 was taken from the jukebox.
After his acquittal, Gideon resumed his previous way of life and married for a fifth time some time later. He died of cancer in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on January 18, 1972, at age 61. Gideon's family had him buried him in an unmarked grave in Hannibal.
Gideon was portrayed by Henry Fonda in the 1980 made-for-television film Gideon's Trumpet, based on Anthony Lewis' book of the same name. The film was first telecast as part of the Hallmark Hall of Fame anthology series, and co-starred Jose Ferrer as Abe Fortas, the attorney who pleaded Gideon's right to have a lawyer in the US Supreme Court.
Convicted of breaking and entering in Florida, Clarence Earl Gideon set a major legal precedent when he challenged his conviction, claiming that he could not afford an attorney and should have been appointed one by the court.
Claiming he had the right to an attorney, but could not afford one, Gideon petitioned the Florida Supreme Court for a writ of habeas corpus. After the Court denied Gideon’s petition, as a last resort, he submitted a handwritten petition to the Supreme Court of the United States for a writ of certiorari.
on the morning of the crime, Gideon allegedly smashed a window leading into the pool room and stole approximately a dozen bottles of beer, a dozen bottles of Coca-Cola, several bottles of wine, about $5.00 from the cigarette machine, and $60.00 from the jukebox. Police arrested Gideon on a tip given to them by Henry Cook, ...
Gideon, a 50-year-old unemployed Caucasian with a long history of juvenile and adult felonies, was convicted of breaking and entering into the Bay Harbor Pool Room on June 3, 1961, in Panama City, Florida. At around 5:30 a.m. on the morning of the crime, Gideon allegedly smashed a window leading into the pool room and stole approximately ...
Clarence Earl Gideon. Clarence Earl Gideon was a career criminal whose actions helped change the American legal system. Accused of committing a robbery, Gideon was too poor to hire a lawyer to represent him in court. After he was found guilty and sentenced to five years in prison, Gideon took his case to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Clarence Earl Gideon was a career criminal whose actions helped change the American legal system. Accused of committing a robbery, Gideon was too poor to hire a lawyer to represent him in court. After he was found guilty and sentenced to five years in prison, Gideon took his case to the U.S. Supreme Court. In a landmark legal decision, Gideon v.
Supreme Court. In a landmark legal decision, Gideon v. Wainwright, the Supreme Court ruled that under the U.S.
When Clarence was five years old, his mother remarried. He later remembered, “My stepfather never could accept me or I could not accept him. My mother was very strict and my life as a child was of the strict discipline.”. He described himself as someone who could not conform and “was miserable.
After starting out at two dollars a day, he was assigned a job at the factory that paid twenty-five dollars a day. When he lost his job in 1928, Gideon began committing crimes.
After starting out at two dollars a day, he was assigned a job at the factory that paid twenty-five dollars a day. When he lost his job in 1928, Gideon began committing crimes. He was found guilty of robbery, burglary, and larceny and sentenced to ten years in the Missouri State Penitentiary. He and his wife divorced.
When he lost his job in 1928, Gideon began committing crimes. He was found guilty of robbery, burglary, and larceny and sentenced to ten years in the Missouri State Penitentiary. He and his wife divorced. After three years and four months in prison, he was paroled in January 1932.
Gideon was outraged by the verdict, particularly the fact that he had been denied counsel. He applied to the Florida Supreme Court for a writ of habeas corpus, an order freeing him on the ground that he was illegally imprisoned.
The Guide To American Law. St. Paul, Minn.: West Publishing Co., 1984.
Gideon's cellmate was a former Palm Beach lawyer and municipal judge named Joseph A. Peel Jr., who was convicted of murdering a rival judge and his wife. 9 Jacob's source for that interesting tidbit was none other than his friend and colleague W. Fred Turner, the able attorney who represented Gideon at his retrial.
Born august 30, 1910, in Hannibal, MO., Gideon had been in and out of prisons since he was 16. His father, a shoemaker, died when he was three, and his mother remarried.
Gideon asserted that right in open court on August 4, 1961, when he was put on trial for breaking and entering the Bay Harbor Pool Hall in Panama City, Fla. Forced to represent himself, he still pled not guilty and tried his best to defend himself. He was convicted.
Gideon and his stepfather did not get along, and he ran away from home at age 14, "accept [ing] the life of a hobo and tramp," making his way as far as California before returning to Missouri about a year later. 2. Gideon's mother introduced him to incarceration shortly after his return.
Gideon had at least four felony convictions and a host of minor infractions and arrests on his record. He spent more than half of the next two decades behind bars, but he was also something of an escape artist. The first time he was locked up, at age 15, he escaped from the Hannibal jail.
In 1951, he was convicted of an unspecified crime in Texas and served 13 months. 6. In most of the prisons in which Gideon had done time, prisoners routinely filed appeals and petitions claiming, per Betts v.
In 1951, he was convicted of an unspecified crime in Texas and served 13 months. 6. In most of the prisons in which Gideon had done time, prisoners routinely filed appeals and petitions claiming, per Betts v.
Gideon sought relief from his conviction by filing a petition for writ of habeas corpus in the Florida Supreme Court. In his petition, Gideon challenged his conviction and sentence on the ground that the trial judge’s refusal to appoint counsel violated Gideon’s constitutional rights. The Florida Supreme Court denied Gideon’s petition.
Lower Court Ruling: The trial judge denied Gideon’s request for a court-appointed attorney because, under Florida law, counsel could only be appointed for a poor defendant charged with a capital offense. The Florida Supreme Court agreed with the trial court and denied all relief.
The Florida Supreme Court denied Gideon’s petition. Gideon next filed a handwritten petition in the Supreme Court of the United States. The Court agreed to hear the case to resolve the question of whether the right to counsel guaranteed under the Sixth Amendment of the Constitution applies to defendants in state court.
Gideon was charged with breaking and entering with the intent to commit a misdemeanor, which is a felony under Florida law.
4. Put to trial before a jury, Gideon conducted his defense about as well as could be expected from a layman. He made an opening statement to the jury, cross-examined the State's witnesses, presented witnesses in his own defense, declined to testify himself, and made a short argument 'emphasizing his innocence to the charge contained in ...
Put to trial before a jury, Gideon conducted his defense about as well as could be expected from a layman. He made an opening statement to the jury, cross-examined the State's witnesses, presented witnesses in his own defense, declined to testify himself, and made a short argument 'emphasizing his innocence to the charge contained in ...
316 U.S. at 471. It was for this reason the Betts Court refused to accept the contention that the Sixth Amendment's guarantee of counsel for indigent federal defendants was extended to or, in the words of that Court, "made obligatory upon, the States by the Fourteenth Amendment.".
It was for this reason the Betts Court refused to accept the contention that the Sixth Amendment's guarantee of counsel for indigent federal defendants was extended to or, in the words of that Court, 'made obligatory upon the states by the Fourteenth Amendment'.
Brady, 316 U.S. 455 (1942), that the Fourteenth Amendment requires such appointment in all prosecutions for capital crimes. The Court's decision today, then, does no more than erase a distinction which has no basis in logic and an increasingly eroded basis in authority. In Kinsella v.
Clarence Earl Gideon had an eighth grade education and a long criminal history. He had been sentenced to prison for the fifth time. Upon his arrival he began to study law for long hours in the prison library. As the story goes, eventually, with a pencil and paper he scratched out an appeal to the United States Supreme Court that changed the American legal system when the Court decided his appeal in the case of Gideon v. Wainwright. Is that really what happened?
On August 4, 1961 Gideon stood in court and advised the judge that the United States Supreme Court said he had the right to a court appointed attorney. In Clarence Gideon: Unlikely World Shaker Jack King dates Gideon’s belief in that right to Missouri in 1928. That year, a Missouri court appointed an attorney for him when he was being prosecuted for burglary. Gideon was only 18.
According to W. Fred Turner, Gideon’s attorney at his second trial, Peel was Gideon’s cellmate and “stood over his shoulder as Gideon wrote and told him what to say.” There’s evidence that Peel did more than that.
Gideon’s statement in court: “The United States Supreme Court says I am entitled to be represented by Counsel.” proved to be prescient. Convicted former Judge Joseph Peel, Jr. proved how important it is to have someone trained in the law on your team.
A young Florida Assistant Attorney General, Bruce R. Jacob, argued the state’s case before the United States Supreme Court in the Gideon case. Since then Mr. Jacob has had a distinguished career in the law. He remains active 50 years later as Dean Emeritus and Professor of Law at Stetson College of Law. The Gideon case has remained part of his life. For the 40 th Anniversary of the Court’s decision Dean Jacob wrote: MEMORIES OF AND REFLECTIONS ABOUT GIDEON v. WAINWRIGHT. In September, 2013, for the 50th Anniversary Dean Jacob spoke about the case at the University of Florida Law School.