Right to Counsel (From Briefs of 100 Leading Cases in Law Enforcement, P 173-183, 1991, Rolando V. del Carmen, Jeffery T. Walker -- See NCJ-126275)

• NCJ Number: 126292
• Author(s): R V del Carmen; J T Walker
• Date Published: 1991
• Length: 11 pages
• Sale Source: Anderson Publishing Co
• Publication Type: Legislation/Policy Analysis
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Supreme Court decisions concerning right to counsel are analyzed for their significance to law enforcement.

Abstract

As stated in Powell v. Alabama, 287 U.S. 45 (1932), where the defendant in a capital case is unable to employ counsel and is incapable adequately of making his own defense because of ignorance, feeblemindedness, illiteracy, or the like, it is the duty of the court to assign counsel for him as a necessary requisite of due process of law. And, in Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U.S. 335 (1963), it was ruled that the sixth amendment requires that a person charged with a felony offense in a State court must be given appointed counsel if he or she cannot afford one. In the case Arbersinger v. Hamlin, 407 U.S. 25 (1972), the Court determined that the right to counsel applies even in misdemeanor cases if the accused faces the possibility of imprisonment, however short that imprisonment may be. The Court, in the case United States v. Henry, 447 U.S. 264 (1980), found that the government violates a defendant's sixth amendment right to counsel by intentionally creating a situation likely to elicit incriminating statements.