Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Criminal Law Blogs -> StandDown Texas Project

Criminal Law

: StandDown Texas Project

Walter Mondale on Gideon

By standdown

"A Key Legal Right at Issue," is former state attorney general, U.S. Senator and Vice President Walter Mondale's OpEd in today's Washington. Post. More than 45 years ago, as attorney general of Minnesota, I joined with the attorneys general of 21 states in asking the Supreme Court to ensure that counsel would be appointed for all people facing criminal charges who could not afford it. The court answered our plea. Yet today, its historic decision in Gideon v. Wainwright is at risk. In Gideon, the Supreme Court ruled that Florida violated the Constitution when it refused to appoint counsel for Clarence Gideon, a defendant who lived in a rooming house and had just $25 to his name. The opinion recognized the "obvious truth" that "in our adversary system of criminal justice, any person hauled into court, who is too poor to hire a lawyer, cannot be assured a fair trial unless counsel is provided for him...continue to full post

Full post as published by StandDown Texas Project on March 10, 2009 (boomark / email).