When Poverty Is the Worst Crime of All

• Author: Jessica S. Henry
• Published date: 01 September 2014
• Date: 01 September 2014
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0887403413504294
• Subject Matter: Film Review

Criminal Justice Policy Review

2014, Vol. 25(5) 653 –656

© 2013 SAGE Publications

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DOI: 10.1177/0887403413504294

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Film Review

When Poverty Is the Worst

Crime of All: A Film Review

of Gideon’s Army (2013)

Jessica S. Henry1

Abstract

This review of the Sundance Award-winning documentary film, Gideon’s Army,

examines the disparate impact of the criminal justice system on the poor and,

particularly, poor people of color.

Keywords

courts, criminal justice policy, criminal court, criminal trial, defense, poverty and race,

sentences

Gideon’s Army, Dawn Porter’s new and compelling documentary, follows three public

defenders who strive for justice in a system where money, or the lack thereof, often

determines the quality of representation. The army referenced in the film’s title is

named for Clarence Earl Gideon, a petty thief who ultimately transformed the

American legal system. In 1961, Gideon was arrested for stealing a soda and bit of

cash from a Florida pool hall. Unlike in his previous cases, Gideon did not want to

plead guilty to the pool hall theft. He asked the court for a lawyer to represent him, but

the court denied his request. Undeterred, Gideon represented himself at trial, and lost.

In the months and years that followed, Gideon appealed his conviction from the dark-

ness of his prison cell, arguing that he had been denied his constitutional right to

counsel. In 1963, the Supreme Court unanimously agreed, declaring in the landmark

case of Gideon v. Wainwright, that the Constitution requires that people too poor to

afford a lawyer be provided with one in criminal cases. In lofty language, the Gideon

court opined that fair trials “cannot be realized if the poor man charged with crime has

1Montclair State University, NJ, USA

Corresponding Author:

Jessica S. Henry, Department of Justice Studies, Dickson Hall, Montclair State University, 1 Normal

Avenue, Montclair, NJ 07043, USA.

Email: henryj@mail.montclair.edu

504294CJP25510.1177/0887403413504294Criminal Justice Policy ReviewHenry

research-article2013