Betts v. Brady | |
---|---|
![]() | |
Argued April 13–14, 1942 Decided June 1, 1942 | |
Full case name | Betts v. Brady |
Citations | 316 U.S. 455 (more) 62 S. Ct. 1252; 86 L. Ed. 1595; 1942 U.S. LEXIS 489 |
Case history | |
Prior | None |
Holding | |
Where a man is tried for robbery, due process of law does not demand that Maryland furnish counsel to an indigent defendant. | |
Court membership | |
| |
Case opinions | |
Majority | Roberts, joined by Stone, Reed, Frankfurter, Byrnes, Jackson |
Dissent | Black, joined by Douglas, Murphy |
Laws applied | |
U.S. Const. amends. VI, XIV | |
Overruled by | |
Gideon v. Wainwright (1963) |
Betts v. Brady, 316 U.S. 455 (1942), was a landmark United States Supreme Court case that denied counsel to indigent defendants prosecuted by a state. The reinforcement that such a case is not to be reckoned as denial of fundamental due process was famously overruled by Gideon v. Wainwright.[1] In the dissent, Justice Hugo Black famously opined that "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."[2]