ENROLLED
2020 Regular Session
HOUSE RESOLUTION NO. 15
BY REPRESENTATIVE DUPLESSIS
A RESOLUTION
To recognize March 18, 2020, as Gideon Day in Louisiana and to commend Louisiana's
public defenders.
WHEREAS, since the birth of this nation, Americans have held to a healthy fear of
the tendency of governments to infringe on the liberties of citizens; recognizing that the
criminal trial was one place where such abuse could occur, the First Congress of the United
States included the following in its list of constitutional protections known as the Bill of
Rights: "In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public
trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been
committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed
of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him;
to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance
of Counsel for his defence"; and
WHEREAS, though the fourteenth amendment to the constitution prohibited states
from depriving a person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law, the federal
courts were slow to determine that the right to the assistance of counsel was a fundamental
right and was therefore applicable to state criminal trials; and
WHEREAS, in 1961 Clarence Earl Gideon, a drifter with an eighth grade education,
was arrested in Florida for a burglary at a pool hall; Gideon stood trial without assistance of
counsel and was convicted; from jail Gideon sent handwritten appeals to the Florida and
United States supreme courts arguing that his conviction was unconstitutional because he
was denied his right to counsel; and
WHEREAS, the U.S. Supreme Court accepted Gideon's appeal and unanimously
decided that he was right, the fourteenth amendment did make the assistance of counsel
provision of the sixth amendment applicable to the states; Justice Black, writing for the
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court, stated "reason and reflection require us to recognize that in our adversary system of
criminal justice, any person haled into court, who is too poor to hire a lawyer, cannot be
assured a fair trial unless counsel is provided for him"; and
WHEREAS, Gideon was retried in Florida with a court appointed attorney and found
not guilty; as United States Attorney General Robert Kennedy noted in 1963, "If an obscure
Florida convict named Clarence Earl Gideon had not sat down in prison with a pencil and
paper to write a letter to the Supreme Court, and if the Supreme Court had not taken the
trouble to look for merit in that one crude petition among all the bundles of mail it must
receive every day, the vast machinery of American law would have gone on functioning
undisturbed. But Gideon did write that letter. The Court did look into his case and he was
retried with the help of a competent defense counsel, found not guilty, and released from
prison after two years of punishment for a crime he did not commit, and the whole course
of American legal history has been changed"; and
WHEREAS, Louisiana's public defenders implement sixth amendment principles and
the Gideon v. Wainwright decision in people's lives; in defending the indigent, they uphold
the constitution, protect the rights of citizens, hold the powerful accountable, and ensure
equal justice; in short, Louisiana's public defenders protect the rights of citizens in a way that
makes the Constitution of the United States more than a "parchment" barrier; and
WHEREAS, it is most fitting to take a moment to call to mind all that the name
Gideon represents in our nation's struggle to achieve its highest ideals and to commend those
who in pursuit of those ideals advocate for fair treatment of all citizens, including the
indigent.
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the House of Representatives of the
Legislature of Louisiana does hereby recognize March 18, 2020, as Gideon Day in
Louisiana; does hereby commend Louisiana's public defenders and all those who support
their work; and does hereby express, on behalf of the people of Louisiana, profound
gratitude to public defenders for their commitment and courage.
SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
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