Felix Frankfurter

“ Most incarcerations are upon pleas of guilty, and probably most such pleas have been made without the felt need of counsel. It is not for us to suggest that it might be desirable to offer to every accused who desires to plead guilty the opportunities for counsel and to enter with formality upon the record the deliberate disclaimer of his need for counsel because of a full appreciation of the meaning of a plea of guilty as expounded by responsible judges. ”

“ In the contemporaneous language of the trial court, the defendants 'are advised of their rights of Trial and of the consequences of an entry of a plea of guilty,' the court 'advises and admonishes each of said defendants of the consequences of entering such pleas of guilty,' and the defendants thereafter still persisting, their pleas 'are received and entered of record.' There was nothing in the common-law record, on the basis of which the Supreme Court of Illinois rendered its decision, to contradict this account of the proceedings in 1935. ”

“ It does not militate against respect for the deeply rooted systems of criminal justice in the States that such an abrupt innovation as recognition of the constitutional claim here made implies, would furnish opportunities hitherto uncontemplated for opening wide the prison doors of the land. ”