Memorandum on Winters v. Beck

    A Ba) eltsner i chaps most 
Of the above listed attorneys, Mr, Meltsner is per : 

familiar with the’ ins and outs of the ¢ Should you have any 

questions, may I suggest you centact him at the Furd office, 

212-Ju 6-8397, or at his home, 212-Su 77-6714. 

JUpsON 6-8397 

Mer y 

October 4, 1966 

Dear 

Are state courts to provide legal counsel for indigent 
defendants accused of misdemeanors? 

This is one of the critical questions of criminal law which 
the Supreme Court may rule on next Monday, October 10, 

The case (Winters v. Beck) was brought to the Court last 
spring by attorneys ‘of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational 
Fund, Inc. The principal issue in the Fund's petition in behalf 
of Robert Winters, a 24-year-old Negro bus boy, is whether a 1963 
Supreme Court ruling applies to all defendants who cannot afford a 
lawyer or only to those charged with felonies. 

The 1963 case, Gideon v,Wainwright, established a judicial 
doctrine that state courts must appoint lawyers for defendants who 
cannot afford to retain counsel. But Arkansas and a number of 
other states have limited Gideon to felony cases. 

Winters was convicted of a morals offense involving a white 
woman in Little Rock, Arkansas, and sentenced to 30 days in jail 
and fined $254. Unable to pay the fine, he was committed to the 
County Penal Farm to work it off at the rate of one dollar a day, 
extending his jail sentence to nine and a half months. 

The Legal Defense Fund argued before the Arkansas Supreme 
Court that Winters was not represented by a lawyer at his trial 
and therefore was unconstitutionally convicted. However, the 
Arkansas Supreme Court held that a state need supply a lawyer only 
when a defendant is charged with a felony. 

Fund attorneys maintain that the type of charge has nothing 
to do with a poor defendant's right to a lawyer. 

Representing Winters in the case are Legal Defense Fund 
Director-Counsel Jack Greenberg, James M. Nabrit, III, Michael 
Meltsner, Alfred Feinberg, and Gerald Smith of New York, and 
John Walker of Little Rock. 

: Sincerely, 

Jesse DeVore 
Director of Public Information 

JD:bg 

Contributions are deductible for U.S. income tax purposes 

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