6th Amendment Flashcards
The 6th Amendment
guarantees a criminal defendant “the assistance of counsel for his defense.”
The 6th Amendment right to counsel automatically attaches once formal adversarial judicial proceedings have commenced (e.g., formal charge, preliminary hearing, indictment, arraignment, and all parts of the trial process).
By contrast, the 5th Amendment right to counsel (discussed above) must be affirmatively invoked by the defendant (i.e., it does NOT automatically attach – must be affirmatively invoked).
Once a defendant’s right to counsel has attached,
any attempts to deliberately elicit a statement from him in the absence of his attorney violates the 6th Amendment.
Note: However, The 6th Amendment right to counsel is offense-specific; meaning that it only applies to the offense that the defendant has been formally charged with. The police are free to question the defendant about unrelated offenses without his attorney present (expressly or through undercover means).
The 6th Amendment right to counsel is in effect once
it automatically attaches UNLESS the defendant voluntarily, knowingly, and intelligently waives the right.
The defendant must understand the nature of the right being waived and the consequences for waiving it.
ineffective assistance of counsel
The Supreme Court has held that part of the 6th Amendment right to counsel is a right to effective assistance of counsel. If a convicted defendant can prove that he had ineffective assistance of counsel at trial, his conviction can be overturned. To prove ineffective assistance, a defendant must show:
That his trial lawyer’s performance fell below an objective standard of reasonableness;
AND
A reasonable probability that the result of the proceeding would have been different BUT FOR his counsel’s unprofessional errors.
There are three main types of identification procedures:
Photo Arrays
Pre-Indictment Lineups
Post-Indictment Lineups
Photo Arrays.
Neither the defendant nor his attorney has the right to be present, but the police must turn over the photo array to the defendant.
Pre-Indictment Lineups.
The defendant does NOT have a 6th Amendment right to have counsel present during a pre-indictment lineup.
Post-Indictment Lineups.
The defendant has a 6th Amendment right to have counsel present during a post-indictment lineup.
If that right is violated, then evidence that the witness identified the defendant at the lineup MUST be excluded.
If the lineup was impermissibly suggestive,
the court can exclude the evidence of it.
However, the witness is permitted to identify the defendant in court if the prosecution can establish by clear and convincing evidence that the witness would have identified the defendant even without the suggestive lineup.
