W. Fred Turner - Gideon's Case

Gideon's Case

Clarence Earl Gideon was a drifter convicted of petty theft from a pool hall; at the trial he was denied a lawyer. His appeal to the Supreme Court was accepted, and the decision ordered that lawyers be provided in all criminal cases. Gideon's conviction was not overturned, but he was to be tried again.

Turner was Gideon's lawyer in this second trial. By destroying the credibility of the prosecution's key witness through exposing contradictions with other eyewitnesses and the witness's self-admittedly false statements (such as about his prior criminal record), Turner won an acquittal for Gideon.

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