Gideon v. Wainwright

Gideon v. Wainwright was a 1963 decision by the United States Supreme Court in which the Court unanimously ruled that state courts are required under the Fourteenth Amendment to provide counsel in criminal cases for defendants who are unable to afford to pay their own attorneys, extending the identical requirement made on the federal government under the Sixth Amendment.

The right guaranteed by the decision was later listed among those enumerated to criminal suspects through the Miranda warning as required by the 1968 Supreme Court decision Miranda v. Arizona, in the form: "If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you before any questioning, if you wish."