High Court Upholds Negro's Defense in Misdemeanor

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- Press Releases
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- 03f2fa8e-b992-ee11-be37-00224827e97b

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Press Releases, Volume 6. High Court Upholds Negro's Defense in Misdemeanor, 1969. 03f2fa8e-b992-ee11-be37-00224827e97b. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/162df4ec-763e-4ffe-9130-05201d455919/high-court-upholds-negros-defense-in-misdemeanor. Accessed November 05, 2025.

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    President 
Hon. Francis E. Rivers 

PRESS RELEASE Director-Counsel 
egal fefense lund Jack Greenberg 

Director, Public Relations 

NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND, INC. Nome Devernin 

10 Columbus Circle, New York, N.Y. 10019 * JUdson 6-8397 ¢ NIGHT NUMBER 212-749-8487 

FOR RELEASE 
SATURDAY 
June 21, 1969 

HIGH COURT UPHOLDS NEGRO'S 
DEFENSE IN MISDEMEANOR 

WASHINGTON, D.C.---The case of an Arkansas Negro who was convicted on 

a morals offense led the U.S. Supreme Court to affirm this week that 

persons charged with a misdemeanor must be provided legal counsel at 

state expense. 

Arkansas, Iowa, Nebraska, North and South Dakota, and Missouri 

are affected by the court's action. 

The High Court's response was the result of the NAACP Legal 

Defense and Educational Fund's (LDF) defense of Robert Winters of 

Little Rock. 

Winters, found guilty of a morals offense involving a white 

woman, was first sentenced to 30 days in jail and fined $254 court 

cost. But, being poor, he had no money to pay the fine. 

Thus, as is the practice in Arkansas and some other states, he 

was sentenced to 284 days on the county penal farm towork off the 

fine at the rate of $1.00 a day. 

He was strapped with this sentence without benefit of a lawyer. 

LDF learned later that no one had informed him of his constitutional 

right to legal counsel. 

After his imprisonment, Winters filed for a writ of habeas 

corpus in the Little Rock municipal and circuit courts asking relief 

against his unconstitutional restraint, conviction, sentence and fine. 

Nonetheless, both courts denied his request. 

The United States District Court in Arkansas ordered Winters' 

release and the U.S. Court of Appeals in St. Louis rejected the 

state's appeal. On Monday, the Supreme Court of the United States 

refused to review the case. 

LDF attorney Michael Meltsner, arguing Winters' case in the 

appeals court, said Winters' sentence to a penal farm "constituted 

imprisonment for no other reason than poverty." 

Mr. Meltsner contended that because neither the judge nor 

anybody else informed Winters of his right to legal counsel, the 

local court deprived him of his rights guaranteed under the 

Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution. 

-30- 

25

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High Court Upholds Negro's Defense in Misdemeanor

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