Palmer v. Ashe, Warden (342 U.S. 134)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided December 11, 1951 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 342 U.S. 134 · 72 S. Ct. 191
- Docket
- No. 38
- Argued
- November 5, 1951
- Decided
- December 11, 1951
- Term
- October Term 1951
- Vote
- 5–4
- Majority author
- Justice Black
- Issue area
- Criminal Procedure
- Disposition
- Reversed and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
How the Justices voted
- Majority
- Justice Clark, Justice Burton, Justice Douglas, Justice Frankfurter, Justice Black (wrote)
- Dissenting
- Chief Justice Vinson, Justice Minton (wrote), Justice R. H. Jackson, Justice Reed
Opinion excerpt
Opinion of the Court by Mr. Justice Black, announced by Mr. Justice Frankfurter. This Court has repeatedly held that the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment requires states to afford defendants assistance of counsel in noncapital criminal cases when there are special circumstances showing that without a lawyer a defendant could not have an adequate and a fair defense. Petitioner, a prisoner in a Pennsylvania penitentiary, is serving the second of two five-to-fifteen-year sentences simultaneously imposed after pleas of guilty to state offenses. He sought release .in these habeas corpus proceedings filed in a Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas. His petition alleged that his pleas of guilty were entered without benefit of counsel and that other special circumstances existed which deprived him of opportunity and capacity fairly to defend himself. Answers of the warden and district attorney admitted that petitioner had not been represented by counsel, but asserted that the trial record sufficiently refuted petitioner’s allegations. On consideration of the petition and answers the court held that petitioner’s allegations, in light of the record, failed to show probable cause for his discharge. The case was then dismissed, thereby depriving petitioner of any opportunity to offer evidence to prove his allegations. The Superior Court affirmed, 167 Pa. Super. 88, 74 A. 2d…
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