Examining trials require the prosecutor to show the presiding officer that probable cause exists and determines if the accused will be granted bail and on what conditions.

Considering the responsibility of a layperson like Pointer to carry out such a cross-examination without assistance, it further ruled that examining trials did not require counsel because they preceded indictment.

Pointer's case was part of a series that defined how the Sixth Amendment applied to defendants in state courts.

Earlier in the same term, the Court had defined the minimum rights under the Sixth Amendment as: "In the constitutional sense, trial by jury in a criminal case necessarily implies at the very least that the `evidence developed' against a defendant shall come from the witness stand in a public courtroom where there is full judicial protection of the defendant's right of confrontation, of cross-examination, and of counsel.

"Justice Hugo Black held that: Pointer's conviction was reversed and returned to Texas for further proceedings.

Further, it also said "...the magistrate may appoint counsel to represent an accused in such examining trial only..." This case was part of the process of applying rights guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment to the states.