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JonathanBonillaSecondPaper 8 - 24 May 2009 - Main.JonathanBonilla
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| | | The Right to Effective Counsel | |
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< | As guaranteed by the 6th Amendment to the Constitution, a criminal defendant in the United States has the right to “Assistance of Counsel for his defence.” This has naturally been interpreted to mean the “right to effective counsel” by the Supreme Court. Unfortunately for many indigent criminal defendants, the cost of obtaining any private counsel is vastly out of reach, leaving them to choose between a public defender or pleading guilty in exchange for a reduced sentence. The majority of the accused do plead out, as is required for our criminal justice system to properly function, in what has been described as a “plea bargain assembly line." However, for those that do try to fight their charges, they are left with overworked defense attorneys, often handling up to a hundred cases at a time. Yet this has not been found to cross the threshold of ineffective counsel, on its own. | >
> | As guaranteed by the 6th Amendment to the Constitution, a criminal defendant in the United States has the right to “Assistance of Counsel for his defence.” This has naturally been interpreted to mean the “right to effective counsel” by the Supreme Court. Unfortunately for many indigent criminal defendants, the cost of obtaining private counsel is vastly out of reach, leaving them to choose between relying on a public defender for trial, or pleading guilty in exchange for a reduced sentence. The majority of the accused do plead out, as is required for our criminal justice system to properly function, in what has been described as a “plea bargain assembly line." However, for those that do try to fight their charges, they are left with overworked defense attorneys, often handling up to a hundred cases at a time. Yet this has not been found to cross the threshold of ineffective counsel, on its own. | | | | |
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< | Now, add in the fact that an ambitious prosecutor with a vast amount of instantly available information would be able to far more effectively select a favorable jury than a lowly public defender, and one must ask how this system continues to be allowed. Apparently, the answer is that the standard for ineffective counsel is absurdly high: both deficient attorney performance and prejudice resulting from that deficient performance that adversely affected the defense must be shown. In other words, since the ability to know every detail about a potential juror is not a traditional aspect of lawyering, not having access to such information does not count against an already deficient public defender, despite the practical effect of dooming the defendant’s trial before it begins. | >
> | Now, add in the fact that an ambitious prosecutor with a vast amount of instantly available information would be able to far more effectively select a favorable jury than a lowly public defender, and one must ask how this system continues to be allowed. Apparently, the answer is that the standard to prove ineffective counsel is absurdly high: both deficient attorney performance and prejudice resulting from that deficient performance that adversely affected the defense must be shown. In other words, since the ability to know every detail about a potential juror is not a traditional aspect of lawyering, not having access to such information does not count against an already deficient public defender, despite the practical effect of dooming the defendant’s trial before it begins. | | | What Can Be Done? | | | Assuming such an organization was to succeed, it would greatly improve the ability of public defenders to effectively defend their clients, possibly resulting in the reduction of plea bargains, which could further push the criminal justice system into reform. | |
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> | (Word Count: 1000) | | |
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-- DanaDelger - 23 May 2009 | |
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Dana,
Thanks for the comments. I am in the process of editing my essay, so I apologize if I remove some of your quotations.
-- JonathanBonilla - 24 May 2009 | | |
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