Defending Gideon

Clarence Earl Gideon was charged with breaking into a pool hall. He could not afford a lawyer to defend him in court, and after a hasty trial, he was convicted. Had Gideon accepted his fate, he'd have been imprisoned for five years. But Gideon did challenge his conviction -all the way to the Supreme Court. The result was the landmark case Gideon v. Wainwright, which guarantees poor defendants the right to counsel in criminal cases.

• Release date
• March 18, 2013
• Runtime
• 30 min
• Genres
• Documentary
• Director
• Rebecca Richman Cohen

Cast

Martin Sheen Narrator

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Clarence Earl Gideon Self - Archive Footage