Betts v. Brady
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued April 13 – 14, 1942 Decided June 1, 1942
Full case name: Betts v. Brady Citations: 316 U.S. 455; 62 S. Ct. 1252; 86 L. Ed. 1595; 1942 U.S. LEXIS 489 Prior history: None Subsequent history: Gideon v. Wainwright
Holding
Due process of law demands that where a man is tried for robbery, Maryland does not have to furnish counsel to an indigent defendant.
Court membership
Chief Justice: Harlan Fiske Stone Associate Justices: Owen Josephus Roberts, Hugo Black, Stanley Forman Reed, Felix Frankfurter, William O. Douglas, Frank Murphy, James F. Byrnes, Robert H. Jackson
Case opinions
Majority by: Roberts Joined by: Stone, Reed, Frankfurter, Byrnes, Jackson Dissent by: Black Joined by: Douglas, Murphy
Laws applied
U.S. Const. amends. VI, XIV
Overruled by
Gideon v. Wainwright

Betts v. Brady, 316 U.S. 455 (1942), was a landmark United States Supreme Court case that denied counsel to indigent defendants when prosecuted by a state. It was overruled by Gideon v. Wainwright. Image File history File links Seal_of_the_United_States_Supreme_Court. ... The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest judicial body in the United States and leads the judicial branch of the United States federal government. ... Harlan Fiske Stone (October 11, 1872 – April 22, 1946) was an American lawyer and jurist who served as the dean of Columbia Law School, Attorney General of the United States, Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court and later Chief Justice of the United States. ... Owen Josephus Roberts (May 2, 1875 – May 17, 1955) was an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court for fifteen years. ... Hugo Black Hugo LaFayette Black (February 27, 1886 – September 25, 1971) was a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (1937 - 1971). ... Stanley Forman Reed ( December 31, 1884 – April 2, 1980) was an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court from 1938 to 1957. ... Felix Frankfurter (November 15, 1882 – February 22, 1965) was an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. ... William Orville Douglas (October 16, 1898 – January 19, 1980) was a United States Supreme Court Associate Justice. ... For the Australian rules footballer, see Frank Murphy (footballer). ... James Francis Byrnes (May 2, 1879 – April 9, 1972) was an American politician from the state of South Carolina. ... Robert Houghwout Jackson (February 13, 1892–October 9, 1954) was United States Attorney General (1940–1941) and an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court (1941–1954). ... Amendment VI (the Sixth Amendment) of the United States Constitution codifies rights related to criminal prosecutions in federal courts. ... The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is one of the post-Civil War amendments and it includes the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses. ... Holding The Sixth Amendment right to counsel is a fundamental right applied to the states through the Fourteenth, and requires that indigent criminal defendants be provided counsel at trial. ... // Case citation is the system used in common law countries such as the United States, England and Wales, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and India to uniquely identify the location of past court cases in special series of books called reporters or law reports. ... Year 1942 (MCMXLII) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1942 calendar). ... The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest judicial body in the United States and leads the judicial branch of the United States federal government. ... Category: ... Holding The Sixth Amendment right to counsel is a fundamental right applied to the states through the Fourteenth, and requires that indigent criminal defendants be provided counsel at trial. ...

Facts

In its decision in Johnson v. Zerbst, the Supreme Court had held that defendants in federal courts had a right to counsel guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment. In Powell v. Alabama, the Court had held that state defendants in capital cases were entitled to counsel, even when they could not afford it; however, the right to an attorney in trials in the states was not yet obligatory in all cases as it was in federal courts under Johnson v. Zerbst. In Betts v. Brady, Betts was indicted for robbery and upon his request for counsel, the trial judge refused, forcing Betts to represent himself. He was convicted of robbery, a conviction he eventually appealed to the Supreme Court on the basis that he was being held unlawfully because he had been denied counsel. Johnson v. ... The Sixth Amendment may mean the: Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution - part of the Bill of Rights. ... Holding Defendants conviction was unconstitutional because they were denied the assistance of counsel from the time of their arraignment until the beginning of their trial, in violation of the Sixth Amendment as applied to the states through the Fourteenth. ... Johnson v. ...

Procedure

Filed writ of habeas corpus at the Circuit Court for Washington County, Maryland claiming he had been denied counsel. In common law jurisdictions, habeas corpus, or more precisely habeas corpus ad subjiciendum, is a prerogative writ which requires the addressee to produce in court a person in its custody and justify his or her imprisonment. ... Washington County is a county located in the U.S. state of Maryland. ...

Subsequently, filed a writ to Court of Appeals of Maryland. His petitions were all denied and he finally filed for certiorari to the Supreme Court. This law-related article does not cite its references or sources. ...

Issue

In a six to three decision, the Court found that Betts did not have the right to be appointed counsel with Justice Hugo Black emphatically dissenting. In the majority opinion, Justice Owen Roberts said for the Court, Hugo Black Hugo LaFayette Black (February 27, 1886 – September 25, 1971) was a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (1937 - 1971). ...

"The Fourteenth Amendment prohibits the conviction and incarceration of one whose trial is offensive to the common and fundamental ideas of fairness and right, and while want of counsel in a particular case may result in a conviction lacking in such fundamental fairness, we cannot say that the amendment embodies an inexorable command that no trial for any offense, or in any court, can be fairly conducted and justice accorded a defendant who is not represented by counsel." The Fourteenth Amendment may refer to the: Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution - contains the due process and equal protection clauses. ...

In this selection from the majority opinion and throughout the rest of the opinion, Roberts continually makes the point that not all defendants in all cases will need the assistance of counsel in order to receive a fair trial with due process. Roberts appears to be of the opinion that, while counsel may be necessary to receive a fair trial in some cases, it is not in all cases. However, in his dissent, Black wrote,

"A practice cannot be reconciled with ‘common and fundamental ideas of fairness and right,’ which subjects innocent men to increased dangers of conviction merely because of their poverty. Whether a man is innocent cannot be determined from a trial in which, as here, denial of counsel has made it impossible to conclude, with any satisfactory degree of certainty, that the defendant's case was adequately presented."

Black basically says in his dissent that the denial of counsel based on financial stability makes it so that those in poverty have an increased chance of conviction, which is not equal protection of the laws under the Fourteenth Amendment. During his dissent, Black also cited Johnson v. Zerbst, making the point that had the proceedings of Betts’s case been held in federal court, his petition for counsel to be appointed to him would have been accepted and counsel would have been appointed. Black argued that because this right was guaranteed in federal courts, the Fourteenth Amendment should make the right obligatory upon the states; however, the majority disagreed. Black also argued that a man of even average intelligence could not possibly be expected to represent himself without any training in such matters as the law. The Fourteenth Amendment may refer to the: Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution - contains the due process and equal protection clauses. ... Johnson v. ... The Fourteenth Amendment may refer to the: Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution - contains the due process and equal protection clauses. ...

External Link

• "Betts v. Brady" on Wikisource.