from the Georgia Straight
"On August 4, 1961, an earnest Clarence Earl Gideon stood before a judge in Florida, accused of stealing $5 in change and a few loose bottles of beer and soda from a closed pool hall. His voice was too low to be recorded in many instances, but he told the judge that he was not ready to go to trial because he did not have a lawyer and felt he needed one. The judge asked him if he knew his matter was set for trial. He replied that he did. The judge then asked why he had not made arrangements to have a lawyer. Gideon replied that he did not have the money for a lawyer. He then requested that the court appoint a lawyer because the US constitution provided him with that right. The trial judge declined to do so. Gideon was convicted and sentenced to five years in prison, the maximum legal sentence.
"He appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States. Those nine judges agreed with Gideon. At his second trial, with a lawyer able to point the jury to weaknesses in the prosecution’s case, Gideon was acquitted.
"Today in the US, any person accused of a crime has the right to a state-funded lawyer if he or she cannot afford one.
"In Canada, we have a similar right, although it is not nearly as broad as in the US Section 7 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms has been interpreted to allow for state-funded counsel where the accused can prove that trial without a lawyer would be unfair and where the accused cannot reasonably afford a lawyer. …"
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