In the annual State of the Judiciary address Monday, California Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye (pictured at right) decried the decimation of funding for state courts and taught lawmakers a lesson in legal history, the Los Angeles Times is reporting today. Cantil-Sakauye offered the landmark “right to counsel” 1963 case of Gideon v. Wainwright. Clarence Gideon was arrested and charged in Florida with breaking and entering with intent to commit a misdemeanor, a felony in that state. He was too poor to hire a lawyer, and his request for counsel to be appointed was denied because under Florida law, the only time the court can appoint counsel to represent a defendant is when that person is charged with a capital offense. Forced to represent himself he was found guilty, and sentenced to five years in prison. His subsequent appeal to the Florida supreme court was denied. From his cell, making use of the prison library and writing in pencil on prison stationery, Gideon appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court arguing that he had been denied counsel and, therefore, his Sixth Amendment rights, as applied to the states by the Fourteenth Amendment, had been violated. The Supreme Court held that the right […]