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Bruce Jacob

Bruce Robert Jacob (born March 26, 1935) is a former Assistant Attorney General for the State of Florida during the early 1960s. He represented Louie L. Wainwright, the Director of the Florida Division of Corrections, in the Supreme Court case of ''Gideon v. Wainwright'', decided in March 1963, regarding the right to counsel of indigent defendants in non-capital felony cases in state courts. The attorney representing the Petitioner, Clarence Gideon, was Abe Fortas, a Washington, D.C. lawyer who later became a Justice of the Supreme Court. The previous 1942 Supreme Court case of Betts v. Brady required the appointment of counsel for an indigent defendant at state expense if there was a “special circumstance” present in the case which made it necessary for counsel to be provided for the defendant to receive a fair trial. For example, if the defendant was indigent and was extremely young, or lacked education or experience, was unfamiliar with court procedures, or if the charges against him were complex, the trial court was required under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to appoint counsel. Jacob argued against any extension of the defendant's right to counsel. The Court in Gideon overruled Betts and required state courts to appoint attorneys for defendants in all felony prosecutions.

Gideon had been convicted of breaking the Bay Harbor Poolroom, located in the small community of Bay Harbor, near Panama City, Florida. His conviction was set aside and the case was sent back to the trial court in Panama City for a new trial. At the second trial, he was represented by appointed attorney Fred Turner and Gideon was acquitted.

The decision in Gideon led to the establishment of many more public defender offices throughout the United States than had existed previously. Anthony Lewis wrote a book about the case, entitled "Gideon’s Trumpet", published in 1964. In 1980 it was made into a movie of the same name, starring Henry Fonda as Clarence Gideon. Provided by Wikipedia