PREMO V. MOORE
131 S. Ct. 733 | Decided January 19, 2011 By Tim Shepherd ’13 In an 8-to-0 opinion authored by Justice Kennedy—with Justice Kagan recused—the Supreme Court overturned a Ninth Circuit grant of habeas corpus relief. The case involved a question of inadequacy of counsel where a plea bargain was considered and accepted without counsel seeking first to suppress an improperly obtained confession by the defendant. Strickland v. Washington governs the standard for claims of inadequate counsel. The Court based its opinion on 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d), which allows federal habeas relief only when a state court’s decision denying relief involves “an unreasonable application of clearly established Federal Law as determined by the Supreme Court.” Prior to trial, on advice of counsel, Moore pleaded no contest to felony murder in exchange for the minimum sentence but filed for post-conviction relief based on his claim that his attorney failed to file a motion to suppress his confession to the police. Moore and two accomplices had been charged for attacking a man and binding him with duct tape in the trunk of a car before driving into the countryside, where Moore shot the victim once, killing him. Moore and the other parties offered the same story to police that they had offered to two witnesses: that the killing was accidental and that their only intention had been to frighten the victim. Based on his confessions to other witnesses and the severity of the abuse, both of which tended to suggest the prudence of accepting a plea offer, the Oregon state court denied Moore’s claim of ineffective assistance of counsel. The Federal district court similarly denied Moore’s petition for habeas corpus but was reversed by the Ninth Circuit. The Supreme Court found that the Ninth Circuit’s use of Arizona v. Fulminante to grant relief was improper. Fulminante required a finding of unconstitutionality in order to suppress a confession but said nothing about ineffectiveness of counsel. Nor did Fulminante establish some standard for a determination of prejudice, which was in this case unlikely. Furthermore, ineffective counsel claims require a finding of both prejudice and deficient performance. Strickland set a high bar for such review, noting that a determination of ineffectiveness of counsel requires attorney incompetence under prevailing professional norms, not a deviation from best practices. Here there is a doubly difficult bar, as the Supreme Court
had to determine whether, under § 2254(d), the state court unreasonably applied Strickland. The Court noted that in this case, suppression of the defendant’s confession would serve little purpose in light of the evidence and was likely to fail. Furthermore, argued the Court, while the Ninth Circuit found that a motion to suppress would have succeeded, it did not address whether a competent attorney would have necessarily filed such a motion, nor did it consider the significance of such a suppression. Furthermore, held the Court, careful adherence to the Strickland standard is essential given the complex and nuanced nature of plea negotiations, in particular in cases such as this when pleas are entered early. In a concurring opinion, Justice Ginsburg noted that Moore had at no point declared that he would have resisted a plea bargain given better counsel and that therefore, the prejudice requirement under Strickland was not met. TURNER V. ROGERS
131 S. Ct. 2507 | Decided June 20, 2011 By Tim Shepherd ’13 In a 5-to-4 decision, the Supreme Court held that when the recipient of child support payments is also unrepresented by counsel, the state has no obligation under the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause to provide counsel to the indigent supporting parent facing incarceration for civil contempt of court-ordered child support payments. However, the Court also found that although the When the recipient of state does not need child support payments to provide counsel, is also unrepresented by it must have in counsel, the State has no place alternative procedures to assure obligation under the 14th a fair determination Amendment’s Due Process of whether the Cause to provide counsel supporting parent to the indigent supporting is actually able to parent facing incarceration comply with the for civil contempt of courtorder to make support ordered child support payments. payments. After several findings of contempt and a stint in prison for failure to make child support payments to Rogers, Turner was found to be in willful contempt and was sentenced to 12 months of incarceration. Neither Turner nor Rogers was provided attorneys at the hearing, and the court
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