PANAMA CITY, Fla. - As Clarence Earl Gideon walked out of the Bay County Courthouse 40 years ago Tuesday, all he wanted was a cheeseburger.
Neither he nor his attorney fully grasped the significance of what had just happened.
Two years earlier, Gideon had been convicted on theft charges after being denied a lawyer. But he won a new trial, and then acquittal, as the result of a landmark ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court.
The justices ruled in Gideon vs. Wainwright that criminal defendants are entitled to legal representation even if they cannot afford a lawyer. The case resulted in the creation of public defender systems across the nation.
Officials commemorated Gideon and his trials' place in history by dedicating a marker at the courthouse Tuesday.
Gideon's lawyer, W. Fred Turner, and prosecutor Bill Harris each gave him a $20 bill on Aug. 5, 1963, as they stood on the courthouse steps, then watched him walk off to get his cheeseburger.
Gideon died in South Florida nine years later. Turner went on to be a judge and is the last surviving participant in Gideon's trials.
"These occasions when you stop and give credit to an individual come along all too rarely, but the courts have recognized it all along," Turner, 81, said Monday.
Turner signed copies of Gideon's Trumpet, a book by New York Times columnist Anthony Lewis about the trials and Supreme Court decision. It was made into a television movie with the same title starring Henry Fonda.
It all started in 1961 at the Bay Harbor Pool Room in Springfield, a Panama City suburb. A customer told police he saw Gideon, then 50, steal change and cases of beer, wine and soda from the bar before making his getaway in a taxi.
Police tracked Gideon to a motel where they found $25.28 in change in his pockets, which they considered incriminating evidence. Gideon, however, was a gambler who had just had a good night at cards, Turner said.
Gideon repeatedly asked for a court-appointed lawyer, but Judge Robert McCray refused. Forced to represent himself, he was quickly convicted.
The Supreme Court overturned his conviction on March 18, 1963, and ordered a new trial, this time with a court-appointed lawyer.
