As a Contra Costa County jury watched, an Oakland man accused of killing his ex-girlfriend attacks his lawyer with a pen and tries to attack a prosecutor.
If the lawyer does a very good job, then the defendant has no path to later appeal his case. Many defense attorneys aren’t there to get their clients out of trouble, especially in high profile cases, they exist to make sure that the law is applied fairly.
IANAL, but: It circles back to the right to fair representation.
Say he’s convicted, but at a later court, claims “After my totally involuntary psychotic episode, now verified by multiple behavioral psychologists, my lawyer held my unintentional actions against me and did a demonstrably poor job in the remainder of the case. I deserve the right to a fair trial.”
That COULD be enough to get the case declared a mistrial and re-scheduled.
But there’s also a billion reasons you can make an appeal. Most of which have nothing to do with that. Also, being able to make an appeal is a low bar. Most criminal convictions can be appealed…the chance of that appeal overturning the conviction remains low.
Actually, that guy is completely fucked. That attorney will make sure that there is zero chance that guy can ever appeal any of his cases.
Are you suggesting that he’ll purposely do a bad job? That sort of thing could get him disbarred.
No, he’ll defend it fully to his duty so that the defendant can’t claim lawyer incompetence.
Sorry, I’m not following. You mean the defendant is fucked and his lawyer he stabbed will try to get revenge on him?
If the lawyer does a very good job, then the defendant has no path to later appeal his case. Many defense attorneys aren’t there to get their clients out of trouble, especially in high profile cases, they exist to make sure that the law is applied fairly.
This is complete nonsense.
IANAL, but: It circles back to the right to fair representation.
Say he’s convicted, but at a later court, claims “After my totally involuntary psychotic episode, now verified by multiple behavioral psychologists, my lawyer held my unintentional actions against me and did a demonstrably poor job in the remainder of the case. I deserve the right to a fair trial.”
That COULD be enough to get the case declared a mistrial and re-scheduled.
But there’s also a billion reasons you can make an appeal. Most of which have nothing to do with that. Also, being able to make an appeal is a low bar. Most criminal convictions can be appealed…the chance of that appeal overturning the conviction remains low.
I bet that attorney has so much good will for his client that he will give the best defense even though his client is a-hole.