385 U.S. 982 (1966), 759, Dejoseph v. Connecticut.

• Citation: 17 L.Ed.2d 443,87 S.Ct. 526,385 U.S. 982
• Docket Number: Misc.,No. 759
• Date: 05 December 1966
• Parties: John DeJOSEPH, petitioner, v. CONNECTICUT.
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

Page 982

385 U.S. 982 (1966)

87 S.Ct. 526, 17 L.Ed.2d 443

John DeJOSEPH, petitioner,

v.

CONNECTICUT.

No. 759, Misc.

United States Supreme Court.

December 5, 1966

COUNSEL

William D. Graham, for petitioner.

OPINION

Petition for writ of certiorari to the Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut and/or the Appellate Division of the Circuit Court of Connecticut denied. Dissenting opinion by Mr. Justice Stewart with whom Mr. Justice Black and Mr. Justice Douglas join.

This case illustrates, in even more compelling terms than Winters v. Beck, 385 U.S. 907, 87 S.Ct. 207, 17 L.Ed.2d 137, the need for this Court to make clear the meaning of Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U.S. 335, 83 S.Ct. 792, 9 L.Ed.2d 799.

The petitioner was charged in a Connecticut court with criminal nonsupport, a misdemeanor under Connecticut law punishable by imprisonment of up to a year. At his arraignment he told the judge that he was indigent, and requested that counsel be appointed. The judge informed him that appointment of counsel was not possible because the charge was only a misdemeanor. At trial, the petitioner again indicated that he wanted counsel, but his request was ignored by the trial judge. He attempted to conduct his own defense, and was convicted and sentenced to six months in jail. The conviction was affirmed by the Appellate Division of the Connecticut Circuit Court. That court noted that the petitioner had failed to request findings on the issue of his indigency, as required by local practice rules, and held that without more proof of indigency he could not claim that he had been deprived of any right to appointed counsel. Clearly, constitutional claims cannot be blocked by such procedural obstacles, in a case where the defendant, appearing alone in court, saw his requests for counsel denied outright by one judge and totally ignored by another.

The petitioner's conviction in this case is squarely at odds with the decision of the Federal District Court for the District of Connecticut in Arbo v. Hegstrom,

Page 983

261 F.Supp. 397 (Civil No. 11,340, decided June 16, 1966). Arbo was charged in Connecticut with criminal nonsupport, the identical offense with which the petitioner here was charged and convicted. Unlike the petitioner, Arbo pleaded guilty and never requested that counsel be appointed for him. Nevertheless, the Federal District Judge held that Gideon guaranteed Arbo the right to appointed counsel. Arbo's...