Carnley v. Cochran

I concur in the Court’s judgment of reversal and agree for the reasons stated in its opinion that petitioner was, even under the constitutional doctrine announced in Betts v. Brady, 316 U. S. 455, entitled to be represented by counsel. That case, decided in 1942, held that an indigent defendant charged with crime in a state court did not have a right under the Federal Constitution to be provided with counsel unless this Court could say “by an appraisal of the totality of facts in a given case” that the refusal to provide counsel for the particular defendant constituted “a denial of…