Ineffective Assistance Of Counsel
One of the most annoying habits of children is that they pout and say “no fair!” when things do not go their way. It is hard to stay calm and explain that justice is not always about getting what you want. When the courts deliver an unfair ruling, the party that received an unfavorable ruling has the right to appeal the judgment, but the burden of proof is on the appellant to show where the court’s mistake was. If the court applied the rules of due process appropriately, and the jury convicted you, then you lost your case fair and square. Likewise, most criminal cases end with the defendant pleading guilty. If you plead guilty, but then you regret it because prison is a miserable place or because your probation officer is a jerk, your guilty plea stands. You have the right to appeal your conviction, however, if your lawyer did such a bad job of representing you that it caused the jury to believe that you were guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, or it caused you to make a poorly informed decision to plead guilty. To find out more about appealing a wrongful conviction caused by ineffective assistance of counsel, contact a Pittsburgh criminal defense lawyer.
Criminal Defense Lawyers Are Only Human
The Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution grants all defendants in criminal cases the right to representation by a lawyer. The Supreme Court decision Gideon v. Wainwright set the framework for today’s system of representation by public defenders for defendants who cannot afford to hire an attorney from a private law firm. No one expects criminal defense lawyers to work miracles. The law does respect them to be knowledgeable about the criminal process to the point that they can tell whether the state’s actions are unfair. They cannot make incriminating evidence disappear into thin air, but they can tell whether it is inadmissible because the state obtained it in an illegal search. Being a criminal defense lawyer is a profoundly human job; criminal defense lawyers use their human judgment to decide how best to show jurors that there is reasonable doubt about a defendant’s guilt, and this is a tall order when the prosecution has evidence that seems to catch the defendant in the act.
In the News
In 1989, the Supreme Court issued the Strickland v. Washington decision, in which it set the criteria for when a defense lawyer’s actions count as ineffective assistance of counsel, such that the defendant has the right to reverse his or her conviction or sentence on appeal. The appellant must prove that the lawyer made an obvious error and that this error was a deciding factor in the outcome of the case.
Contact Gary E. Gerson About Criminal Defense Cases
A criminal defense lawyer can help you if you were wrongfully convicted of a crime because of a major error by your criminal defense lawyer. Contact the law offices of Gary E. Gerson in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania about your case.
Source:
palegis.us/statutes/consolidated/view-statute?txtType=HTM&ttl=42&div=0&chpt=95&sctn=43&subsctn=0
