Understanding the right to counsel
- The Sixth Amendment to the Constitution requires that defendants (in criminal cases) receive "effective" assistance. This assistance is not considered to be effective, merely because the attorney stands alongside the defendant. A defendant must have an attorney that advocates for their client.
- In most instances, criminal defendants who do not have the income to afford high priced attorneys, they do not receive effective assistance. Instead, the defendants are forced to plead guilty to lengthy terms of imprisonment. They are even, at times forced to go to trial, without an adequate defense to the charged offenses.
- The United States Sentencing Commission issued a report for the 2010 fiscal year. In their report, the Commission revealed that roughly 96% of the defendants prosecuted by the Attorney General's Office, ended with a plea of guilty to the charged offenses. This is shocking.
- What do you think?
