Legal News

Walter Mondale: ?Gideon v. Wainwright is at Risk?

By Ashby Jones

Are the protections of ‘Gideon v. Wainwright’ — the 1963 Supreme Court case which guarantees lawyers to everyone charged with a crime — at risk?

Former Veep Walter Mondale thinks so. Writing in Tuesday’s Washington Post, Mondale writes that “states across the country routinely fail to appoint counsel to people who are genuinely unable to afford representation on their own.”

He cites a report published by the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law School last fall, which found that if Gideon were to face criminal charges in Florida today, he might well be denied a public defender. Under Florida law, he could be disqualified for counsel if he has assets exceeding $2,500 (excluding a house), a car valued above $5,000, or had posted bail of more than $5,000.

Elsewhere, writes Mondale, things are worse. In New Hampshire, Gideon could be found ineligible for counsel if he had a home valued at more than $20,000. Courts in Virginia could deny him counsel because of the amount of money possessed by family members, even if Gideon had no power over that money.

Mondale continues:

As a result, people are forced to defend themselves and can be wrongly convicted. That is what happened to Clarence Gideon. In his first trial, in which he represented himself, he was found guilty and sentenced to five years in prison. After the Supreme Court required the appointment of counsel, he was retried and acquitted.

Many European countries provide such representation to indigent civil litigants. The backtracking that we are experiencing in the area of criminal representation undermines these efforts to move forward in the civil area. . .

This month marks the 46th anniversary of the ruling in Gideon v. Wainwright. [But] [t]he promise of Gideon is ringing hollow, both for defendants, who count on competent counsel for their freedom, and for our society, which counts on the courts to achieve fair and reliable results. We cannot move forward until we stop the erosion of Gideon’s promise to criminal defendants. My hope is to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Gideon — not to have to use that occasion to mourn our continuing failure to heed its call.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on March 10, 2009 (boomark / email).