Gideon files handwritten pencil petition to the Supreme Court from prison challenging his conviction without counsel

From Florida State Prison, Clarence Earl Gideon filed a handwritten in forma pauperis petition asking the Supreme Court to hear his case. Written in pencil on lined prison paper, the five-page petition argued that his Sixth Amendment right to counsel had been violated and that Betts v. Brady should be overruled. Gideon had no legal training; he had researched his claim in the prison library. The petition was one of thousands of pro se prisoner filings the Court receives annually — and one of the rare ones the justices unanimously agreed to hear.