Dean v. Maxwell

Petitioner’s primary contention is that the failure of the trial court to appoint counsel to act on his behalf prior to arraignment deprived him of the right to enter certain pleas and defenses. He claims that the right to urge such pleas and defenses was lost to him when he entered the plea of not guilty, and that, subsequently, the entering of such pleas was not a matter of right but a matter of the unreviewable discretion of the trial court, and thus petitioner was denied the right to a fair trial.

Petitioner urges as authority for his position the case of Hamilton v. Alabama, 368 U. S.,…