Important high court decision looms

In the U.S. Supreme Court’s present term, justices will hear the arguments in Lafler v. Cooper and Missouri v. Fyre about whether judges should have the discretion to change the sentence of a defendant whose Sixteenth Amendment right to effective counsel is violated.

The pro argument for this case is that defendants who do not understand a plea-bargain due to their counsel and given a larger sentence instead; then the judge has the option to reduce the sentence down to the plea bargain sentence offered to the defendant previously or alter it all together.

If the Supreme Court rules in favor of this argument it gives judges more power and allows them to be judge as well as jury. It is the defendants’ responsibility to make sure their counsel, whether appointed or hired, represents them to the best of their abilities; this means the defendant should ask questions as much as possible about plea bargains with the prosecution as well as any other legal advice because their life is their counsel’s hands.

Moreover, if the prosecution makes a plea bargain to the defendants’ counsel, the defendants themselves should be present to be able to fully understand the offer.

Sarah Young

Downers Grove