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What was the Constitutional issue in Gideon v. Wainwright?

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Answer:

The issue at stake here was a US citizen´s right to a due process even if he or she doesn´t have the means to pay a lawyer.

An indigent man, Clarence Earl Gideon, was charged with a felony for alledgedly burglarizing a pool hall in Panama City, Florida, in June 1961. At the beginning of the trial he requested a court-appointed attorney, but the request was denied. He was found guilty. The case made it to the US Supreme Court. On March 18, 1963 , the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the denial of an attorney was a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment , which guarantees due process. There was a new trial and he was acquitted.

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