LDF Opposes Lengthy Jail Sentences Due to Poverty

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LDF Opposes Lengthy Jail Sentences Due to Poverty in St. Louis, Mo.

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- Press Releases
Creator
- LDF
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Identifier
- 21447f28-b992-ee11-be37-00224827e97b

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Press Releases, Volume 5. LDF Opposes Lengthy Jail Sentences Due to Poverty, 1968. 21447f28-b992-ee11-be37-00224827e97b. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/e9819236-84f9-428f-a42a-7b0373a58df0/ldf-opposes-lengthy-jail-sentences-due-to-poverty. Accessed May 18, 2025.

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"Flon. Frenele E: Riesee aN PRESS RELE: rector Counsel egal efense und Jack Greenberg
Director, Public Relations NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND, INC.

Jesse DeVore, Jr. 10 Columbus Circle, New York, N.Y. 10019 « JUdson 6-8397
NIGHT NUMBER 212-749-8487

FOR RELEASE
TUESDAY
December 10, 1968

LDF OPPOSES LENGTHY JAIL
SENTENCES DUE TO POVERTY

NATIONAL LEGAL QUESTION PRESENTED: Are state courts to provide legal
counsel for indigent defendants
accused of misdemeanors?

ST. LOUIS---A sentence of 254 days in jail for the inability to pay a fine and court cost of $254.00 "constitutes imprisonment for no other reason than poverty," LDF attorneys told the U.S. Court of Appeals here today.

The case was that of Robert Winters, an indigent Negro charged with a morals offense involving a white woman in Little Rock, Ark.

Because Winters was not represented by a lawyer at his municipal court misdemeanor trial, held on the same day of the offense--May 3, 1965--LDF attorneys urge he was denied the right to counsel. Arkansas does not appoint counsel for persons charged with misdemeanors.

Winters did not ask for assistance and “was not informed by the presiding judge, or anyone else, of a right to counsel," according to NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) lawyers.

The action of the local court deprived Winters of rights due him under the Fourteenth Amendment, the LDF stated. A federal district court in Little Rock agreed, and the State appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals.

LDF attorneys told the court that other persons in the same indigent situation as Winters routinely work off their fines at the Pulaski County Penal Farm at the vate of $1.00 daily.

Once imprisoned, Winters did file for a writ of habeas corpus, asking "relief against his unconstitutional restraint, conviction, sentence and fine" in the municipal and circuit courts.

Both courts denied his request.

LDF attorneys then took the case to the Supreme Court of Arkansas which issued an order halting the sentence pending consideration of the Winters petition and releasing him on $100.00 bond.

Appearing in the U.S. Appeals Court today for the LDF was attorney Michael Meltsner of New York City.

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NOTE: Though the LDF was once @ part of the NAACP, it is now a separate and distinct organization, even though the initials are retained in its title.

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LDF Opposes Lengthy Jail Sentences Due to Poverty

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