ABSTRACT
In Argersinger v. Hamlin, 407 US 25, the US Supreme Court determined the circumstances in which the Sixth Amendment to the US Constitution required that a court-appointed attorney be provided for a criminal defendant. Jon Argersinger was convicted of carrying a concealed weapon and was sentenced to ninety days in jail. The Florida Supreme Court upheld his conviction, concluding that the right to court-appointed counsel extended only to offenses punishable by more than six months' imprisonment. The Argersinger Court wished to extend Gideon as far as possible, but such expansion raised substantial implementation issues because misdemeanor cases cause the most court congestion and "assembly-line justice" often results. Argersinger fundamentally altered the process of justice in misdemeanor courts. Localities provide legal services for indigent misdemeanor defendants, and many state and local governments decriminalized some traffic and other offenses in order to avoid the consequences of Argersinger.
