State ex rel. Copeland v. Judges of the Court

The relator seeks to have this court compel the Court of Appeals to grant him a complete transcript of his trial without cost and to appoint counsel for his appeal. Relator asserts that the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution requires that an indigent defendant, convicted of a misdemeanor punishable by incarceration and monetary fines, be provided a trial transcript and trial records at public expense and court-appointed counsel in order to perfect an effective appeal.

The rights to a transcript and appointed counsel can only exist under the…