Gideon served his time at Raiford Prison in Union County, Florida. The imposing gate and tower guarded the prisoners and the prison's best known facility, Florida auto license tag plant.

From his Raiford Prison cell, Gideon handwrote a letter to the U.S. Supreme Court, asking for a writ of habeas corpus. The Supreme Court ordered a response by the state of Florida. This is a copy of Gideon's handwritten answer.

The respondent to Gideon's petition for writ of habeas corpus was the Director of the Florida Department of Corrections, H. G. Cochran, so the case was originally called Gideon vs. Cochran. That was the name when the case was called for oral argument in the Supreme Court.

 Click the > button to hear Chief Justice Earl Warren
 call the case for oral argument on January 15, 1963
 

Between the time of oral argument and the Court's decision, three months later, Louie Wainwright replaced Cochran as Director.  When the decision was announced on March 18, 1963, the case had been renamed Gideon v. Wainwright.

A unanimous Supreme Court ruled in Gideon's favor. It recognized for the first time a constitutional guarantee that all accused persons -- rich or poor -- have a right to be represented by a lawyer.

Justice Hugo Black's opinion described why the right to counsel inheres in this Nation's criminal justice system:

"Governments, both state and federal, quite properly spend vast sums of money to establish machinery to try defendants accused of crime. Lawyers to prosecute are everywhere deemed essential to protect the public's interest in an orderly society. Similarly, there are few defendants charged with crime, few indeed, who fail to hire the best lawyers they can get to prepare and present their defenses. That government hires lawyers to prosecute and defendants who have the money hire lawyers to defend are the strongest indications of the widespread belief that lawyers in criminal courts are necessities, not luxuries. The right of one charged with crime to counsel may not be deemed fundamental and essential to fair trials in some countries, but it is in ours. From the very beginning, our state and national constitutions and laws have laid great emphasis on procedural and substantive safeguards designed to assure fair trials before impartial tribunals in which every defendant stands equal before the law. This noble ideal cannot be realized if the poor man charged with crime has to face his accusers without a lawyer to assist him."

Gideon's case was sent back to the Florida court for retrial. With a court-appointed lawyer representing him at the second trial, a jury found Clarence Gideon Not Guilty and set him free.