In Scott v. Illinois, 440 U.S. 367 (1979) the United States Supreme Court considered the right to counsel of an indigent defendant who was convicted of shoplifting, a crime punishable by a maximum fine of $ 500 or by a maximum term of imprisonment of one year, or by both. The defendant was fined $ 50, but was not sentenced to any term of imprisonment. In that case, the Court concluded that the defendant was not entitled to appointed counsel: "We believe that the central premise of Argersinger -- that actual imprisonment is a penalty different in kind from fines or the mere threat of imprisonment -- is eminently sound and warrants adoption of actual imprisonment as the line defining the constitutional right to appointment of counsel. ... We therefore hold that the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution require only that no indigent criminal defendant be sentenced to a term of imprisonment unless the State has afforded him the right to assistance of appointed counsel in his defense." 440 U.S. at 373.