In 1961 a man was accused of stealing $5 and beer from a pool hall. Unable to afford an attorney, Clarence Earl Gideon was forced to represent himself. He was convicted and sentenced to 5 years in prison. He filed a habeas petition with the Florida Supreme Court attacking the conviction on the grounds that the court should have appointed him counsel. Florida, of course, denied the petition.
Gideon filed suit against Louie L Wainwright, the Secretary of the Florida Department of Corrections asserting that he had been denied his Sixth Amendment right to counsel (as applied to the states via the Fourteenth Amendment). The Supreme Court granted certiorari. The rest is history.
Thousands were released from prisons in Florida as a result of the 1963 Gideon decision. Earl got another trial. This time he had the benefit of appointed counsel and he was acquitted.
Gideon v. Wainwright spawned the creation of public defender systems countrywide. These systems represent our country's attempt to protect the most vulnerable and marginalized amongst us: the poor and accused.
Let's be honest. We're trained to be drawn to wealth and popularity. Want to be left alone? Go broke. Want people to treat you like kryptonite? Be broke and be accused of a crime.
If you haven't figured it out, I am a public defender.
I do what I do because I love the Constitution. I love what the right to counsel can do. Yeah, I am an idealist, but there's a reality to my work as well. I think my brothers and sisters in the trenches would agree with me. Our clients are not heroically tragic characters you meet in a John Grisham novel. They are often not appreciative of the work you do. We are often insulted, disrespected, and discounted; sometimes the people who do it wear black robes. Despite all of that, we get up everyday and defend something greater than ourselves.
This blog is lovingly dedicated to the defenders of the indigent accused. We fight hard. We laugh hard. What we do is hard, but we wouldn't have it any other way.
NEXT: "How Can You Defend Those People?"
Gideon filed suit against Louie L Wainwright, the Secretary of the Florida Department of Corrections asserting that he had been denied his Sixth Amendment right to counsel (as applied to the states via the Fourteenth Amendment). The Supreme Court granted certiorari. The rest is history.
Thousands were released from prisons in Florida as a result of the 1963 Gideon decision. Earl got another trial. This time he had the benefit of appointed counsel and he was acquitted.
Gideon v. Wainwright spawned the creation of public defender systems countrywide. These systems represent our country's attempt to protect the most vulnerable and marginalized amongst us: the poor and accused.
Let's be honest. We're trained to be drawn to wealth and popularity. Want to be left alone? Go broke. Want people to treat you like kryptonite? Be broke and be accused of a crime.
If you haven't figured it out, I am a public defender.
I do what I do because I love the Constitution. I love what the right to counsel can do. Yeah, I am an idealist, but there's a reality to my work as well. I think my brothers and sisters in the trenches would agree with me. Our clients are not heroically tragic characters you meet in a John Grisham novel. They are often not appreciative of the work you do. We are often insulted, disrespected, and discounted; sometimes the people who do it wear black robes. Despite all of that, we get up everyday and defend something greater than ourselves.
This blog is lovingly dedicated to the defenders of the indigent accused. We fight hard. We laugh hard. What we do is hard, but we wouldn't have it any other way.
NEXT: "How Can You Defend Those People?"
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