Betts v. Brady 316 U.S. 455 (1942)

• Author: Barbara Allen Babcock
• Pages: 170

Page 170

In Betts an INDIGENT defendant was convicted of robbery after his request for appointed counsel was denied. The Court held that the DUE PROCESS clause of the FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT required states to furnish counsel only when special circumstances showed that otherwise the trial would be fundamentally unfair. Here, because the defendant was of "ordinary intelligence" and not "wholly unfamiliar" with CRIMINAL PROCEDURE, the Court found no special circumstances.

Over the next two decades, Betts was consistently undermined by expansion of the "special circumstances" exception, resulting in the appointment of counsel in most FELONY cases, until it was finally overruled in GIDEON V. WAINWRIGHT (1963).

BARBARA ALLEN BABCOCK

(1986)

(SEE ALSO: Right to Counsel.)