Gideon v. Wainwright - Criminal Justice Worksheet and Answer Key

Crenshaw Criminal Justice Learning Tools Worksheets are designed to be an effective tool in the ongoing effort to encourage students to remain engaged with the information they are learning. The worksheets provided will: 1) Help students identify an underlying big picture, 2) Differentiate instruction, 3) Focus students’ attention, 4) Deliver and summarize content efficiently, and 5) Connect new information to previously covered material.

This worksheet teaches students about Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U.S. 335 (1963), a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in which the Court ruled that the Sixth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution requires U.S. states to provide attorneys to criminal defendants who are unable to afford their own. The case extended the right to counsel, which had been found under the Fifth and Sixth Amendments to impose requirements on the federal government, by imposing those requirements upon the states as well.