Speaking of SCOTUS cases...

msmerymac · March 2012

Tartaruga mentioned Miranda in SBP's thread, which reminded me that SCOTUS released a decision on Missouri v. Frye and Lafler v. Cooper yesterday.

Basically, the court (5-4) declared a right to competent counsel in plea bargains, based on the 6th amendment, not just a right to counsel.

See here: http://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/missouri-v-frye/

And here: http://www.aclu.org/criminal-law-reform/lafler-v-cooper-and-missouri-v-frye-0

The basis of the case (and lafler v. cooper) is that a criminal forewent a pleabargain due to incompetent counsel. (One attorney told his client that he shouldn't take the plea because in his state, you couldn't be convicted of attempted murder if you shot someone below the waist. The defendant was convicted and sentenced to jail time which was 3 times as long as the amount of the plea offer.)

I like Nina Totenberg's reporting:

http://www.npr.org/2012/03/21/149093334/high-court-throws-out-conviction-in-bad-lawyer-case?ft=1&f=2101289

In both cases, the state conceded that the defense lawyers provided ineffective legal assistance to their clients. But the states contended that didn't matter since there is no constitutional right to a plea bargain. On Wednesday, however, the Supreme Court rejected that argument by a 5-4 vote.

But, I don't really know how this will work in the real world:

The court then went on to fashion a remedy, telling the lower courts that consistent with state law, defendants should get a second chance to accept the original offer if they can show they very likely would have done so originally, that the prosecutor would not have withdrawn the offer, and that the judge would have approved it.

Thoughts?

StrawberryBlondie · March 2012

I read these today. I'm definitely agree with the Frye decision, but I'm not sure about Lafter v. Cooper. I mean, clearly the attorney told the client objectively false information, but the client did know what the plea bargain was, so I'm not entirely convinced it rises to the level required by Strickland v. Washington. I'm still pondering how I feel about it.

Publius · March 2012

I'm wondering how often this will actually come into play. In terms of appeals, the standard for competence of counsel is pretty low. It's next to impossible to have a successful appeal based upon incompetent counsel.

StrawberryBlondie · March 2012

Publius:
I'm wondering how often this will actually come into play. In terms of appeals, the standard for competence of counsel is pretty low. It's next to impossible to have a successful appeal based upon incompetent counsel.

IIRC, my state has had only one or two successful ones. Ever.

Speaking of SCOTUS cases...

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