Holder Signals Changes Coming to Criminal Law

On April 9, 2014, Attorney General Eric H. Holder, Jr. spoke at the Annual Convention for the National Action Network (NAN), a civil rights organization founded by Reverend Al Sharpton.  Holder began by honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who was killed on April 4, 1968, almost exactly forty six years from the date of the convention.  Holder acknowledged that Dr. King dedicated his life to building a more just society and left us with a charge to “confront the challenges of our time.”  Holder praised NAN for their work, and for advancing “the cause of justice that has always been at the center of [the Obama] Administration’s work.”  Thus, Holder seemingly proposed “justice” as the foundation of Obama’s criminal policy, and compared the goals of the Administration to those of Dr. King.

Indigent Defendants and the Role of Their Public Defenders

On March 18, 1963, the Supreme Court held in Gideon v. Wainwright that states are responsible for representing defendants who are unable to afford their own attorneys.  Justice Hugo Black gave the Court’s opinion and stated, "in our adversary system of criminal justice, any person hauled into court, who is too poor to hire a lawyer, cannot be assured a fair trial unless counsel is provided for him.  This seems to us to be an obvious truth."  This obligation imposed on states stems from the Sixth Amendment, which establishes a defendant’s right to counsel.  It also stems from the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment, which guarantees a defendant’s right to a fair legal process.  Today however, fifty years after Gideon was decided, the quality of legal representation afforded to indigent defendants is concerning in some states. 

Ineffective Assistance of Counsel in Capital Cases

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.”