NCJ Number
127826
Date Published
1990
Length
19 pages
Annotation
After an introductory overview of legal tenets applicable to ensure a defendant the right to effective counsel, this chapter reviews significant relevant U.S. Supreme Court cases; two cases pertain to the defendant's right to confront adverse witnesses.
Abstract
The sixth amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees that in all criminal prosecutions, the accused has the right to effective assistance of counsel in defense against the charges. In Strickland v. Washington (1984), the U.S. Supreme Court distinguished between two types of right-to-counsel cases. One type involves the actual or constructive denial of the right to counsel altogether, including claims based on State interference with the ability of counsel to render effective assistance to the accused. In the second type of case, defense counsel fails to render adequate legal assistance. To prove the latter case, the defendant must first show that defense counsel made errors so serious that counsel was not functioning as intended under the sixth amendment. Secondly, the defendant must establish that defense counsel's errors prejudiced the defense and deprived the defendant of a fair trial. The cases reviewed pertain to the effective assistance of counsel and infringement of the right to counsel. The two cases involving the defendant's right to confront witnesses concern the use of a screen between child witnesses and the defendant during testimony and the admissibility of a pretrial identification when the eyewitness cannot testify due to memory loss.