## Facts

- An indigent defendant in Illinois was charged with shoplifting merchandise valued at less than $150.
- The defendant requested appointed counsel, but the trial court denied the request.
- After a bench trial, the defendant was convicted and fined $50.
- The governing statute authorized a maximum penalty of a $500 fine, one year in jail, or both.
- The defendant argued that counsel was constitutionally required because imprisonment was an authorized penalty, even though he received no jail sentence.

## Issues

1. Whether the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments require appointment of counsel for an indigent defendant whenever imprisonment is authorized for the charged offense, even if no imprisonment is imposed.
2. Whether a conviction without appointed counsel is constitutionally valid when the sentence is limited to a fine.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court affirmed the judgment upholding the conviction.
- The Court held that the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments bar sentencing an indigent defendant to imprisonment unless the State provided appointed counsel.
- The Court held that the Constitution does not require appointment of counsel when the defendant is not actually sentenced to imprisonment, even if the statute authorizes jail.
- Because the defendant received only a fine, Illinois did not violate the Constitution by denying appointed counsel.

## Legal Principles

- The constitutional right to appointed counsel in state criminal proceedings is triggered by actual imprisonment, not by the mere statutory authorization of imprisonment.
- A State may not impose a term of incarceration on an indigent defendant unless the defendant had the assistance of appointed counsel.
- When the punishment imposed is a fine only, a conviction obtained without appointed counsel does not, by itself, violate the Sixth Amendment as applied through the Fourteenth Amendment.

## Conclusion

The Court set a bright-line rule that appointment of counsel is constitutionally required only when a defendant is actually sentenced to incarceration; the possibility of jail under the statute, without an imposed jail sentence, is insufficient to require counsel.


Scott v. Illinois, 440 U.S. 367 (1979)