Chapter Twenty-Seven The Right to An Attorney

"In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall . . . have the assistance of counsel for his defence.”

—Sixth Amendment Smith Betts was an unemployed thirty-six-year-old

farm worker who was on welfare in 1938, during the Great

Depression. He lived in Hagerstown, a small town in rural western Maryland. In the summer, the Maryland hills are covered with acres of corn and other crops, and when Smitty worked, he cut corn or performed other farm duties. But the economy was still in the midst of the Depression, and there isn't much farm work in the winter.

Mr. Betts had lived with Mary Emerson for three years, and she was considered his wife. On the day before Christmas in 1938, Smitty got his welfare check from...

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