Quicksall v. Michigan (339 U.S. 660)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided June 5, 1950 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 339 U.S. 660 · 70 S. Ct. 910
- Decided
- June 5, 1950
- Term
- October Term 1949
- Vote
- 7–1
- Majority author
- Justice Frankfurter
- Issue area
- Criminal Procedure
- Disposition
- Affirmed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Mr. Justice Frankfurter delivered the opinion of the Court. Petitioner is in custody of the State of Michigan under a sentence of life imprisonment for first-degree murder, confirmed upon collateral attack by a judgment of the Supreme Court of Michigan, here challenged. He claims that he was deprived of his right to counsel to the extent that the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment secures that right. The generalizations that are relevant to such a claim no longer call for elaboration. They have been set forth in a series of recent opinions. It is now settled that, as to its administration of criminal justice, a State’s duty to provide counsel, so far as the United States Constitution imposes it, is but one aspect of the comprehending guaranty of the Due Process Clause of a fair hearing on an accusation, including adequate opportunity to meet it. And so we turn to the facts of this case. By information filed in the Circuit Court for Kalamazoo County, Michigan, on July 16, 1937, Charles Quicksall, the petitioner, was charged with the murder of one Grace Parker. She was a married woman, and Quicksall was her paramour. Petitioner had been a hospital patient, under police guard, between the time of Mrs. Parker’s death on July 2 and July 15, when he was taken before the Municipal Justice Court where, after waiving examination, he was bound over for trial. On arraignment…
Excerpt of a 11,220-character opinion. The full text and citation network load in the interactive viewer above.