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Front and back covers of light brown book laying flat
Gideon’s Trumpet book cover, circa 1980, Box II: 185, Anthony Lewis Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.

Gideon v. Wainwright at 60: Anthony Lewis, Clarence Gideon, and America’s Public Defenders

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Sixty years ago, Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black wrote the majority opinion in Gideon v. Wainwright, a landmark case that ultimately led to the institutionalization of public defender systems across the nation. Yet as important as that decision remains, it took the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Anthony Lewis to convey its importance and meaning in his groundbreaking work, Gideon’s Trumpet, published the following year, in 1964.

In his book, the New York Times scribe spotlighted the troubled life of Clarence Gideon and demonstrated the need for all defendants to be provided legal counsel regardless of financial or societal status. The Anthony Lewis Papers, located in the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress, demonstrate clearly how that book has inspired generations of lawyers, judges, and academics. The journey of Clarence Gideon, the Court’s 1963 decision, and that of the larger public defender system, however, has been knottier.

In Gideon’s Trumpet, Lewis went to great lengths to make several critical points regarding the nation’s legal systems. First, that the breadth and quality of representation provided to indigent defendants varied widely. Thirty-seven states provided free legal counsel to indigent defendants accused of felonies, while five states provided no counsel outside of capital cases. Even where it existed, the infrastructure for the public defense of criminal defendants remained anemic.[1] In 1964, only 13 states had established public defenders paid by the state, while others depended on often poorly funded “voluntary legal aid societies.” Those groups largely relied on private donations from citizens and business, and sometimes on appropriations from municipal governments.[2]

Although earlier cases such as Johnson v. Zerbst (1938) had established a federal defendant’s right to counsel, Congress, beyond a 1960 legal aid measure, had done nothing to fund or establish any real system for indigent defendants.[3] Moreover, Johnson only offered the guarantee of legal representation at the federal level. State courts typically presided over cases involving many more financially disadvantaged defendants, up to sixty percent as of the early 1960s.[4] Gideon v. Wainwright forced Congress to address the issue, which it did in the 1964 Criminal Justice Act (CJA).

Second, by writing about Clarence Gideon’s experiences, Lewis demonstrated that courtroom litigation required professional representation for lay people due to the complex technicalities of the law. The failure to secure such representation could doom an individual to a lifetime of penury, even when not accused of a capital offense.

Third, Lewis argued that the right to counsel should be sacrosanct for all, even the most marginalized citizens. Lewis asserted that it was how the law treated individuals such as Gideon that demonstrated its promise. According to Lewis, Gideon struggled to hold a job, engaged in petty crime, and was a poor father to his many children. Fred Turner, the lawyer that represented Gideon in his Florida court retrial, wrote to Lewis in August 1964 informing him that Gideon’s children had been placed under the care of the state of Florida in foster homes or put up for adoption.[5]

Upon its publication, Lewis’s book struck a chord within the legal community. Chief Justice Earl Warren hailed it for its novelistic “racy style” and its “technical accuracy.” Simon Sobeloff, chief judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, wrote to Lewis that the book “delights my heart,” dealing perceptively with a “problem that has always existed but accorded only slight recognition until recently.”[6] United States Court of Appeals Judge for the Second Circuit Irving Kaufman, famous for his ruling in the Rosenberg espionage case, wrote that his “entire household” – his wife, children, and maid – had all “devoured” it.[7]

Yet in the afterglow of the Gideon v. Wainwright decision, Justice Arthur Goldberg, who joined Hugo Black’s opinion, acknowledged the real-world pressure the ruling would cause on the legal community. “Until both in the federal and state jurisdictions adequate public defender systems are established,” Goldberg told the National Lawyers Club in 1963, “the Bar will have to assume what will be a very great burden and it will be a measure of the fidelity of lawyers to the Constitution and how they discharge it.”[8]

By the end of his career, Lewis too expressed skepticism about the nation’s public defense infrastructure. Writing on the decision’s fortieth anniversary in 2003, Lewis admitted dismay at the “endless failures to bring the promise of Gideon to life.” Many localities across the nation neglected to provide even “minimal” financial support for a reasonable defense. “And far too often,” he continued, “the lawyers provided for indigent defendants have not met the barest of standards of competence.”[9] Lewis found at least one silver lining: conservative and liberal jurists all seemed to support consistently the right to legal counsel, even for those too poor to pay for representation, meaning the ideal of representation for all, in theory, holds true for folks of all political persuasions.[10]

Today, evidence suggests that Lewis’s despair was not misplaced. A 2019 study found that public defenders were typically assigned two to five times the number of cases deemed acceptable for a proper defense.[11] Though no national numbers existed in 1964, Lewis asserted that “various states” estimated that between 30 and 60 percent of those convicted in their courts were unable to afford a lawyer.[12] Experts estimate that about 80 percent of criminal defendants currently lack the finances to hire a lawyer.[13] The COVID-19 pandemic has made the situation even more dire, as many public defenders have quit, leaving some states like Oregon with only one-third of the number of lawyers necessary to represent adequately criminal defendants.[14]

If Lewis doubted the soundness of the public defender infrastructure, the impact of his book on legal scholars, judges, lawyers, politicians, and academics meant that even if the nation’s collective system of public defense failed to meet Lewis’s expectations, those he influenced went on to shape society in equally important ways.

Legal expert and podcaster Jill Wine Banks, the only female prosecutor on the Senate Watergate Committee, told interviewers the book inspired her to pursue a career in law. Coincidentally, both of Banks’s bosses, Archibald Cox and Leon Jaworski, had written Lewis in 1964 to celebrate the book.[15]

Typewritten letter with signature at bottom
Future Watergate prosecutor and then solicitor general congratulates Anthony Lewis on Gideon’s Trumpet. Archibald Cox to Anthony Lewis, May 18, 1964, Box II: 3, Anthony Lewis Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.

Public defenders and attorneys general wrote Lewis to thank him for the inspirational aspects of the work. Assistant Ohio Attorney General Vincent T. Lombardo often gave the book to lawyers he mentored. He described it as “the best book on the law and the legal system I have ever read.”[16] Chief Judge of the New York State Supreme Court Judith Kaye made it the court’s May 1998 book club reading.[17]

Academics like Florida International University political science professor Judith Hicks Stiehm used Lewis’s book in her courses for decades.[18] Duke University political scientist James David Barber told Lewis in 1990 that he was “still using Gideon’s Trumpet every year for my Political Biography course.”[19] Dean of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law Peter M. Shane noted that, as with many attorneys of his generation, Gideon’s Trumpet and To Kill a Mockingbird were the two most important influences in leading him to a career in law.[20] Renowned historian Henry Louis Gates wrote to Lewis that the reason for his attendance at Yale Law School “for a hot minute back in 1977” was due to the impression Gideon made on him at age 14.[21]

Typewritten letter with signature at bottom
Chair of the House Judiciary Committee Emanuel Celler was among many notables who wrote Lewis to congratulate him on the publication of Gideon’s Trumpet. Emanuel Celler to Anthony Lewis, July 19, 1964, Box II:3, Anthony Lewis Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.

Young people also continued to engage with the book. Middle and high schoolers across the nation wrote classroom essays about the case and wrote letters to Lewis. Fred Turner informed Lewis that by 2003, Florida’s Bay County middle schools had made Gideon’s Trumpet required reading. In the process, Turner had a become a regular on the middle school history interview circuit. “As mesmerized as a child with a new toy,” Turner wrote, “the saga of Clarence Earl Gideon comes back to claim its due as I skate into the octagon age of my existence.”[22]

Lewis died in 2013 at the age of 85, and while the public defender systems he helped bring into existence might not have met expectations, they do continue to function, even if unevenly — a fitting reflection of Clarence Gideon, whose own life ranged from triumph at the Supreme Court to one defined largely by drift and marginalization. Despite his own personal struggles, Gideon helped bring that ideal to fruition. Lewis, in turn, transformed his story and battle into one that resonated with generations of Americans, many of whom continue to try to fulfill Gideon’s promise even in the face of disappointment.

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[1] Anthony Lewis, Gideon’s Trumpet (New York: Vintage Books, 1964), 138, 181.

[2] Lewis, Gideon’s Trumpet, 207, 209-10.

[3] Lewis, Gideon’s Trumpet, 203.

[4] Lewis, Gideon’s Trumpet, 207.

[5] Fred Turner to Anthony Lewis, August 5, 1964, Box II: 3, Anthony Lewis Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress; Neal P. Rutledge to Anthony Lewis, September 22, 1967, Box II: 16, Anthony Lewis Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.

[6] Simon Sobeloff to Earl Warren, June 1, 1964, Box II: 3, Anthony Lewis Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress; Simon Sobeloff to Anthony Lewis, April 22, 1964, Box II: 3, Anthony Lewis Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.

[7] Irving Kaufmann to Anthony Lewis, October 23, 1964, Box II: 3, Anthony Lewis Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.

[8] “‘Gideon’ Decision as Severe Test of Bar,” American Bar News 8, no. 5, May 15, 1963, p. 4, Box I: 17, Anthony Lewis Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.

[9] Anthony Lewis, “The Silencing of Gideon’s Trumpet,” New York Times, April 20, 2003, accessed January 15, 2023, https://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/20/magazine/the-silencing-of-gideon-s-trumpet.html.

[10] Anthony Lewis, “The Silencing of Gideon’s Trumpet,” New York Times, April 20, 2003, accessed January 15, 2023, https://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/20/magazine/the-silencing-of-gideon-s-trumpet.html.

[11] Richard A. Oppel, Jr., and Jugal K. Patel, “One Lawyer, 194 Felony Cases, and No Time,” New York Times, January 31, 2019, accessed January 15, 2023, https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/01/31/us/public-defender-case-loads.html.

[12] Lewis, Gideon’s Trumpet, 110.

[13] Richard A. Oppel, Jr., and Jugal K. Patel, “One Lawyer, 194 Felony Cases, and No Time,” New York Times, January 31, 2019, accessed January 15, 2023, https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/01/31/us/public-defender-case-loads.html.

[14] Erika Bolstad, “Public Defenders Were Scarce Before COVID. It’s Much Worse Now,” Stateline, June 21, 2022, accessed January 15, 2023, https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2022/06/21/public-defenders-were-scarce-before-covid-its-much-worse-now.

[15] Jill Wine Banks, The Watergate Girl: My Fight for Truth and Justice Against a Criminal President (New York: MacMillan, 2020), 110; Archibald Cox to Anthony Lewis, May 18, 1964, Box 3, Anthony Lewis Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress; Leon Jaworski to Anthony Lewis, May 20, 1964, Box 3, Anthony Lewis Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.

[16] Vincent T. Lombardo to Anthony Lewis, June 16, 2001, Box II: 788, Anthony Lewis Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.

[17] Judith Kaye to Anthony Lewis, May 5, 1998, Box II: 712, Anthony Lewis Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.

[18] Judith Hicks Stiehm to Anthony Lewis, January 25, 1992, Box II: 518, Anthony Lewis Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.

[19] James David Barber to Anthony Lewis, April 27, 1990, Box II: 464, Anthony Lewis Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.

[20] Peter M. Shane to Anthony Lewis, December 10, 1998, Box II: 719, Anthony Lewis Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.

[21] Henry Louis Gates, Jr., to Anthony Lewis, September 28, 1993, Box II: 551, Anthony Lewis Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.

[22] Fred Turner to Anthony Lewis, 2003, Box II: 803 Anthony Lewis Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.

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