Criminal justice

The 1961 landmark Supreme Court case, Mapp v. Ohio, established that the exclusionary rule applies to state courts, meaning that evidence obtained in violation of the Fourth Amendment (protection against unreasonable searches and seizures) cannot be used in state prosecutions. This decision…

In the landmark 1963 Gideon v. Wainwright case, the Supreme Court confirmed the right of criminal defendants to have an attorney appointed to them, even if they could not afford one. The ruling applied to both state and federal courts.

Clarence Earl Gideon was charged in Florida…

<p>The boy's vicious killing in Mississippi in 1955 helped to transform America's racial consciousness.</p>

<p><span class="deck">A turn-of-the-century jurist devoted his life to keeping the young out of what he called “a school for crime.”</span></p>

<p>Jim McCloskey and a handful of other advocates do the tough work of helping the wrongfully convicted.</p>