Important read for anyone interested in American Jurisprudence

books:


	• Gideon's Trumpet Anthony Lewis Vintage, 1989 - 288 pages average customer review:based on 23 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Peer into the Nine

This book gives a great account of how a simple criminal case made its way to the Supreme Court, but also explains a lot about the court's reasoning when it comes to criminal cases and stare decisis. Also helps show how a brilliant legal minds works, and highlights the differences between a lawyer and a person with no professional knowledge of the law - differences that any law student must overcome if they are to be successful.

Good Introduction into Law

The author is a New York Times Columnist, meaning he knows how to write. He weaves story-telling with historical data, so the whole thing isn't fun; but it's balanced.

The author goes to enormous lengths to educate the reader and keep the information as stimulating as possible. There were many instances when I couldn't put the book down, or wait to pick it up again.

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An American classic

This was on our required reading list when I took political science in college, and umpteen years later, it still deserves to be required. When young friends are considering law school, I buy them Scott Turow's "One L," so they'll know what law school is like, and "Gideon's Trumpet" so they'll know why they should stick it out.

Gideon is a good read!

This book is a very good read, especially for those who have never really spent the time to understand the difference between federal & state court systems, or for those who want to learn fundamentals about the US Supreme Court. The story of Clarence Earl Gideon is pretty remarkable.

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Important read for anyone interested in American Jurisprudence

Gideon's Trumpet is an account of Clarence Earl Gideon -- an indigent prisoner who took his Habeas case to the Supreme Court and spawned the 60's federal and state movement to establish legal representation for the outcast. His case, Gideon vs. Wainwright (1963), resulted in the Supreme Court's unanimous decision to overturn a 21-year-old ruling in Betts vs. Brady, and secured the right of legal representation for the accused who do not have the means to pay for a counsel in the United States.

Previous to the Gideon ruling, the Supreme Court had determined that the states should, more or less, decide whether or not the accused needed representation. As a result, in many instances, the lack of a specific federal position and ambiguous guidelines allowed the states to legally prosecute indigent defendants without offering them any legal protection. That is, until Clarence Gideon managed to take his case all the way upto the highest court in the U.S. and win.

Although the case history is significant in its own right, Gideon's Trumpet is narrated with enough sidenotes about the judicial process and social context that it offers a broad meaningful look at the legal system for the general public. Of all the dry, law-related books that are out there, this is one of the rare few that I can safely recommend to my friends.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

A history of the landmark case of James Earl Gideon's fight for the right to legal counsel. Notes, table of cases, index. The classic backlist bestseller. More than 800,000 sold since its first pub date of 1964.

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