Document Type
Article
Publication Title
Federal Sentencing Reporter
Publication Date
12-2012
ISSN
1053-9867
Page Number
106
Keywords
indigent defense, Sixth Amendment, civil litigation, criminal justice
Disciplines
Civil Law | Criminal Law | Law
Abstract
Advocates seeking indigent defense reform have often relied on civil litigation to prospectively enforce the Sixth Amendment right to counsel and to attack structural deficiencies of indigent defense systems-such as under- funding-that are likely to lead to system-wide ineffective assistance. Although the United States Supreme Court has addressed myriad aspects of postconviction ineffective assistance of counsel claims made in the criminal context, particularly in the last decade or so,' many of these cases have had little direct bearing on the way in which advocates have attempted to enforce the Sixth Amendment in the civil context. The Supreme Court has never directly addressed structural ineffective assistance of counsel claims or the standard that should be applied to such claims. The Court's most recentcases in its right to counsel line of jurisprudence are no different in that they address neither civil right to counsel claims nor prospective enforcement of the Sixth Amendment. However, the way in which they redefine the Sixth Amendment's relevance pretrial and their pragmatic approach to criminal justice issues may have the unintended effect of paving an easier road to the vindication of structural claims in the civil context.
Recommended Citation
Lauren D. Sudeall,
Unintended Consequences: The Impact of the Court's Recent Cases on Structural Ineffective Assistance of Counsel Claims, 25 Federal Sentencing Reporter. 106
(2012)
Available at: https://scholarship.law.vanderbilt.edu/faculty-publications/1469