Sixth Amendment In Crisis: Right To Competent Counsel At Risk

[Related: Obama legal team wants to limit defendants' rights

The Obama administration is asking the Supreme Court to overrule long-standing law that stops police from initiating questions unless a defendant's lawyer is present, another stark example of the White House seeking to limit rather than expand rights.]

Sixth Amendment In Crisis: Right To Competent Counsel At Risk

Christy Hardin Smith Tuesday March 31, 2009 5:35 am

The House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security had a recent hearing on problems with criminal representation that far too many indigent defendants are facing in this country.

In some jurisdictions, inadequate legal representation has reached a crisis level.

I say this not just as a lawyer who has done criminal representation, but also as a former assistant prosecutor. I know full well the value of having evidence and procedure tested. If you are a good state's attorney, you want well-qualified opposing counsel making you prove your case.

Or, at least, you should, because that is how justice is best served.

When the jury hears all sides, weighs them against one another, and reaches a true and just verdict based on well-tested evidence, facts and law, we all win.

An unjust process, especially one in which opposing counsel fails to make even basic objections, is improper and unfair to the defendant and to constitutional obligations under the Sixth Amendment.

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