Chapters 8 and 9 Summary and Analysis

State judge Walter V. Schaefer of the Supreme Court of Illinois asserts that the right to an attorney is greater than all other rights because a layperson can't be expected to know how to argue that specific evidence shouldn't be allowed or how to effectively question witnesses. The right to counsel had been greatly limited for those accused of felonies under English. The Americans had adopted the Sixth Amendment, which provides for the right to counsel in what was an apparent effort to avoid the English courts' trap of preventing an attorney for those accused of felonies. In 1836, almost a half century later, the English law is changed to provide lawyers for felons. The Supreme Court Justices who were to hear Gideon's case are all aware that many of the cases they hear are the result of the absence...