Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U.S. 335 (1963), was a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in which the Court ruled that the Sixth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution requires U.S. states to provide attorneys to criminal defendants who are unable to afford their own. The case extended the right to counsel, which had been found under the Fifth and Sixth Amendments to impose requirements on the federal government, by imposing those requirements upon the states as well.
Gerald Leonard Spence is a semi-retired American trial lawyer and author. He is a member of the Trial Lawyer Hall of Fame, and is the founder of the Trial Lawyers College. Spence has never lost a criminal case before a jury either as a prosecutor or a defense attorney, and did not lose a civil case between 1969 and 2010. He is considered one of the greatest lawyers of the 20th century, and one of the best trial lawyers ever. He has been described by legal scholar Richard Falk as a "lawyer par excellence".
The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) is an American criminal defense organization.
Jeralyn Elise Merritt is an American criminal defense attorney in private practice in Denver, Colorado, since 1974. She served as one of the trial lawyers for Timothy McVeigh in the Oklahoma City bombing case in 1996 and 1997. In 2002 Merritt founded and is the principal author of the blog TalkLeft: The Politics of Crime. She also serves as a legal commentator for news media programs and as an internet journalist.
Gerald Bernard Lefcourt is an American criminal defense lawyer. He has represented a number of high-profile clients, including financier and registered sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, the Black Panthers, activist/author Abbie Hoffman, hotelier Harry Helmsley, former Speaker of the New York State Assembly Mel Miller, and actors Russell Crowe and Tracy Morgan.
Stephen J. Berry is an American investigative journalist. In 1993, while working for The Orlando Sentinel, he and Jeff Brazil won the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting for a report exposing a sheriff department drug squad's unlawful seizure of millions of dollars from motorists, mostly minorities. He is now an associate professor at The University of Iowa's School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Berry is the author of a book about investigative journalism entitled Watchdog Journalism: The Art of Investigative Reporting.
William L. Summers is an American criminal defense lawyer.
James Cheney Mason is an American attorney best known as co-counsel for Casey Anthony in the 2011 Casey Anthony trial and counsel for Nelson Serrano in his 2006 murder trial.
Albert Joseph "Al" Krieger was an American criminal defense lawyer, most prominently for figures in organized crime and drug trafficking, as well as for a number of Oglala Lakota activists during criminal proceedings following the Wounded Knee Occupation.
Ellen Podgor is an expert on white-collar crime and runs a white collar crime blog, which has been quoted by such blogs as The Wall Street Journal's Law Blog and the Daily Kos.
Ian Wallach is an American lawyer and founding partner of the Law Offices of Ian Wallach, P.C. He is a legal news commentator who has appeared on regional, national, and international television and radio shows speaking on current legal issues.
The Bronx Defenders is a public defender office located in the South Bronx neighborhood of New York City. At the Bronx Defenders, criminal defense lawyers work together with civil lawyers, family defense lawyers, immigration lawyers, non-attorney advocates, social workers, and investigators to help their clients address the full range of legal and social issues that can result from criminal charges.
Gerald "Gerry" Harris Goldstein is a criminal defense attorney in San Antonio, Texas, best known for his civil rights and drug-charge defenses. He is currently a partner of Goldstein & Orr and is Board Certified by the State Bar of Texas in Criminal Law and Criminal Appellate Law.
Jonathan A. Rapping is an American criminal defense attorney, founder and president of Gideon's Promise, professor of law at Atlanta's John Marshall Law School, and visiting professor of law at Harvard Law School. Rapping received the MacArthur "Genius" Award in 2014.
Daniel "Dan" Arshack is an American criminal defense attorney, co-founder of The Bronx Defenders, managing partner of the law firm Arshack, Hajek and Lehrman, PLLC, and a founding member of the International Criminal Bar, which was created to promote "the development of an independent legal profession and practice before the International Criminal Court." Arshack, who has been a defender for his entire career and "has never put anyone behind bars as either a prosecutor or government counsel," is known for his expertise on international criminal justice issues, lawyer trainings, and anti-death penalty advocacy. Arshack has conducted training for lawyers in Paris, Beirut, The Hague, Victoria, Montreal, Liberia, and New York. His specialties are trial advocacy techniques, ethics, and international criminal tribunals. He has also been an adjunct professor of trial advocacy at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York.
Richard S. Jaffe is an American lawyer, legal analyst, leadership coach, and author of Quest for Justice: Defending the Damned. Jaffe is considered one of the foremost experts and lecturers on criminal law in America and is frequently called upon to comment on death penalty issues and other areas of criminal law by national television, radio and print media.
In the United States, the trial penalty refers to the difference between the smaller sentence offered to a defendant in a plea bargain prior to a criminal trial versus the larger sentence the defendant could receive if they elect to go to trial. It sits at the center of a legal debate over whether trial penalties abridge defendants' Sixth Amendment right to trial.
Drew Findling is an American criminal defense lawyer known for representing clients who are hip hop musicians as well as other well-known clients, including Donald Trump. Based in Atlanta, he is the founding partner of The Findling Law Firm, P.C., which focuses on criminal defense, ranging from complex white-collar crimes to serious violent felonies, as well as regarding international matters.
Manson v. Brathwaite, 432 U.S. 98 (1977) was a case decided by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1977. The decision touched on the exclusionary rule in state criminal proceedings.
Alan Jay Jackson is an American attorney based in Los Angeles, California. He is recognized for his career in both prosecution and defense within the criminal law sector.
