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: Capital Defense Weekly

weekly email edition

By Karl R. Keys, Esq.

From this week’s edition: Leading off this edition is the Supreme Court’s sweeping, albeit noncapital, decision in Padilla v. Kentucky.  The Padilla Court acknowledges what many state courts and most defense lawyers already know, collateral consequences, specifically immigration, matter. Writing for a 5-4 majority (7-2, if you count the concurrences), Justice Stevens opined that when certain collateral consequences, here immigration, are clear, it is Constitutionally deficient for a defense attorney to either improperly or  simplyfail to inform the defendant of those consequences. Justice Stevens’ opinions notes “[w]e, however, have never applied a distinction between direct and collateral consequences to define the scope of constitutionally ?reasonable professional assistance? required under Strickland...continue to full post

Full post as published by Capital Defense Weekly on April 05, 2010 (boomark / email).