The story behind this case was told in Anthony Lewis's 1964 book Gideon's Trumpet.
Clarence Earl Gideon was a drifter convicted of petty theft from a pool hall; at the trial he was denied a lawyer.
His appeal to the Supreme Court was accepted, and the decision ordered that counsel be provided in all criminal cases.
By destroying the credibility of the prosecution's key witness through exposing contradictions with other eyewitnesses and the witness's self-admittedly false statements (such as about his prior criminal record), Turner won an acquittal for Gideon.
Turner worked as a private attorney until 1979, when he was appointed and subsequently elected to a circuit judge seat.