Wake Forest Law Professors Abby Perdue and Mark Hall and law students Lauren Huddleston (’14), Stephen Frost (’15), Ryan Hanson (’15), and Evan Leadem (’15) participated in the Second Maya Angelou Center for Health Equity (MACHE) Bowl held at Wake Forest Biotech Place in Winston-Salem on Saturday, March 2. Huddleston was a member of the winning team.

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Thomas Sager (’76), Senior Vice President and General Counsel for DuPont Legal, will be the speaker for the Wake Forest University School of Law Hooding Ceremony on Sunday, May 19. Continue reading »

The Wake Forest University School of Law’s Journal of Law and Policy has named a new Board of Editors  for the 2013-2014 academic year.  Continue reading »

The United States is at a critical juncture in its history. The steps taken to advance higher education attainment today among low-income students, similar to the G.I. Bill following World War II, could have profound consequences on the nation’s future prosperity. The Obama administration can leave an enduring legacy through policies advancing higher education attainment for low-income and working-class students. Low-income students constitute a significant proportion of the nation’s populace, spanning multiple demographics including gender, race, ethnicity, and geography. Nationwide, approximately 40 percent of the 50 million students in public K-12 schools come from low-income families. In certain regions of the country such as the South, the percentage of low-income students can rise above 50 percent. Continue reading »

WINSTON-SALEM — An elderly woman at a California independent living facility died after she collapsed and a nurse refused to perform CPR. The facility said they were following their procedures to wait for EMS.  Continue reading »

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — The West Virginia Senate unanimously passed a bill Tuesday that would ensure property owners face very limited liability from trespassers on their land. Continue reading »

GENEVA (7 March 2013) – The United Nations Independent Expert on human rights and environment and Wake Forest Law Professor John Knox highlighted the urgent need to clarify the human rights obligations linked to the enjoyment of a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment. Such clarification, he said, “is necessary in order for States and others to better understand what those obligations require and ensure that they are fully met, at every level from the local to the global,” according to a press release.

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Justin May (’14) is the winner of the 2013 Zeliff Competition Finals, sponsored by the Wake Forest Student Trial Bar.

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Fifty years ago, the Supreme Court handed down a decision that has played a fundamental role in protecting constitutional rights of those accused of crimes.

In Gideon v. Wainwright, the Supreme Court held that under the Sixth Amendment there is a right to counsel in all felony criminal cases, and those who are indigent must be provided counsel by the court. Prior to Gideon, that right was reserved for death penalty cases.

In June 1961, Clarence Gideon was accused of robbing a local pool hall, a felony in the state of Florida. At trial, Gideon, who was indigent, asked the court to appoint counsel for his defense. Under Florida law, counsel was only provided by the state in capital cases, and Gideon’s request was denied. Gideon was forced to act pro se (advocate on his own behalf). A jury found Gideon guilty and sentenced him to five years in prison.

Gideon appealed his denial of counsel all the way up to the United States Supreme Court, writing each appeal himself by hand. The Supreme Court agreed to hear the case and appointed future Supreme Court Justice Abe Fortas to argue for Gideon.

In a unanimous decision, the Court overturned a prior case, Betts v. Brady (1942), which held that counsel was not required for a fair criminal trial in all circumstances. Justice Hugo Black wrote:

“Governments, both state and federal, quite properly spend vast sums of money to establish machinery to try defendants accused of crime. Lawyers to prosecute are everywhere deemed essential to protect the public’s interest in an orderly society. Similarly, there are few defendants charged with crime, few indeed, who fail to hire the best lawyers they can get to prepare and present their defenses. That government hires lawyers to prosecute and defendants who have the money hire lawyers to defend are the strongest indications of the widespread belief that lawyers in criminal courts are necessities, not luxuries.”

Gideon’s case was remanded for trial, this time with a court-appointed attorney. The jury found Gideon not guilty. It turned out that the state’s chief witness may have been an accomplice to the actual culprit.

Criminal defense attorneys are often portrayed in a negative light because they use “technicalities” to “get criminals off.” First, assumptions of guilt are an anathema to our fundamental notions of justice. And second, people fail to remember that many of those “technicalities” protect fundamental constitutional rights that we all cherish.

The criminal justice system is a maze of laws and proceedings that can be very scary and intimidating for the uninitiated who have been accused of a crime. In order to get a fair trial, it is necessary for everyone who is accused of a serious offense to have the opportunity to be represented by competent counsel.

To deny someone the opportunity to have an advocate to walk him through the criminal justice system and to help him exercise his constitutional rights because he can’t afford an attorney is a grave injustice that Gideon v. Wainwright remedied.

Please join us, online or in person, Tuesday, March 12, at noon for Gideon at 50: Fundamental Right, Ongoing Challenge, co-hosted by The Heritage Foundation’s Edwin Meese III, Ronald Reagan Distinguished Fellow in Public Policy Emeritus and former Attorney General of the United States under President Ronald Reagan, and executive director of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers Norman Reimer.

Our panelists will include Steven D. Benjamin, president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers; Jim Bethke, executive director of the Texas Indigent Defense Commission; and Rhoda Billings (’66), professor emeritus at Wake Forest University School of Law and former chief justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court.

Read the full story here.

RALEIGH, N.C. – Campbell Law School will host a full-day Gideon v. Wainwright Symposium on Friday, March 8, as the North Carolina Advocates for Justice (NCAJ) commemorate the 50^thanniversary of the landmark case.  Continue reading »