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| To Kill a Mockingbird: Atticus Finch and Tom Robinson |
The Sixth Amendment of the United States Constitution grants
criminal defendants the right to counsel in federal cases. In 1963 the Supreme Court extended this right
to state felony prosecutions in the landmark case Gideon v. Wainwright. Twenty-one years after Gideon, the Supreme Court in Strickland v. Washington held that the right to counsel really means the right to effective assistance of counsel. Generally speaking, ineffective assistance of counsel (IAC) can be defined as errors by counsel so severe in nature that the criminal
defendant was denied a fair trial. Strickland
provides a specific test. Under Strickland, a defendant must establish:
(1) their trial lawyer’s performance fell short of an “objective standard of
reasonableness” and (2) “a reasonable probability that, but for counsel’s
unprofessional errors, the result of the proceeding would have been different.”
