State Prisoners Denied Right to Challenge Verdicts Based on Poor Representation
Writing for the three dissenters, Justice Sonia Sotomayor called the decision "perverse" and "illogical."
Landwebs
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that state prisoners have no constitutional right to present new evidence in federal court to support their claims that they were represented at trial by unqualified or otherwise deficient lawyers, reports NPR. Writing for the majority, Justice Clarence Thomas said to allow such evidence to be presented in federal court “encourages prisoners to sandbag state courts,” depriving the states of “the finality that is essential to both the retributive and deterrent function of criminal law.” Writing for the three dissenters, Justice Sonia Sotomayor called the decision “perverse” and “illogical.” The Sixth Amendment “guarantees criminal defendants the right to effective assistance of counsel at trial,” she said. “Today, however, the court hamstrings the federal courts’ authority to safeguard that right.”
