Supreme Court Hands Government their Asinine for Laughable Lafler Argument
A defendant was charged with Assault with Intent to Murder in a Michigan court. After receiving flawed legal advice from his attorney, he rejected a favorable plea offer and opted for trial. At trial, the defendant was convicted of all offenses and received a substantially longer sentence than contemplated in the plea offer. It was conceded that the defendant’s counsel was deficient in providing erroneous legal advice concerning the plea bargain, but the government contended that the defendant suffered no prejudice because the trial that lead to the convictions was conducted fairly. The Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision in Lafler v. Cooper clearly and sensibly repudiated the government’s asinine argument that the occurrence of a fair trial somehow cured an error occasioned by defense counsel’s bad legal advice regarding a plea offer.
The Court held that in order to establish the basis for relief, the defendant must demonstrate that but for the deficient legal advice, the defendant would have accepted the plea offer, and that the outcome at trial was significantly more punitive than the terms contemplated in the plea offer. The Court reaffirmed the Strickland standard which has governed ineffective assistance of counsel cases for nearly thirty years, Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668 (1984).
The Law Offices of Colón & McNelis, P.A. aggressively represents people throughout Central Florida in Personal Injury, Social Security/Disability, Immigration, Family, Criminal Defense, and Probate matters. Colón & McNelis, (863) 534-3777, www.colonandmcnelis.com.
A defendant was charged with Assault with Intent to Murder in a Michigan court. After receiving flawed legal advice from his attorney, he rejected a favorable plea offer and opted for trial. At trial, the defendant was convicted of all offenses and received a substantially longer sentence than contemplated in the plea offer. It was conceded that the defendant’s counsel was deficient in providing erroneous legal advice concerning the plea bargain, but the government contended that the defendant suffered no prejudice because the trial that lead to the convictions was conducted fairly. The Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision in Lafler v. Cooper clearly and sensibly repudiated the government’s asinine argument that the occurrence of a fair trial somehow cured an error occasioned by defense counsel’s bad legal advice regarding a plea offer.
The Court held that in order to establish the basis for relief, the defendant must demonstrate that but for the deficient legal advice, the defendant would have accepted the plea offer, and that the outcome at trial was significantly more punitive than the terms contemplated in the plea offer. The Court reaffirmed the Strickland standard which has governed ineffective assistance of counsel cases for nearly thirty years, Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668 (1984).
The Law Offices of Colón & McNelis, P.A. aggressively represents people throughout Central Florida in Personal Injury, Social Security/Disability, Immigration, Family, Criminal Defense, and Probate matters. Colón & McNelis, (863) 534-3777, www.colonandmcnelis.com.
RSS Feed
