The Court issued its opinion in Padilla v. Kentucky this morning. Padilla alleged in a post-conviction petition that his counsel "not only failed to advise him of [the immigration] consequence[s of pleading guilty] prior to his entering the plea, but also told him that he 'did not have to worry about immigration status since he had been in the country so long.'" Padilla alleged that he had relied on this erroneous advice when he pleaded guilty. He also alleged that he would have gone to trial had he received correct advice from his attorney. The question before the Court was "whether, as a matter of federal law, Padilla’s counsel had an obligation to advise him that the offense to which he was pleading guilty would result in his removal from this country."
The Court concluded: "It is our responsibility under the Constitution to ensure that no criminal defendant—whether a citizen or not—is left to the mercies of incompetent counsel. To satisfy this responsibility, we now hold that counsel must inform her client whether his plea carries a risk of deportation. Our longstanding Sixth Amendment precedents, the seriousness of deportation as a consequence of a criminal plea, and the concomitant impact of deportation on families living lawfully in this country demand no less." (Internal quotations and citations omitted.)
The Court thus found the first prong of the Strickland v. Washington test for ineffective assistance of counsel, assuming Padilla's allegations were true. It then remanded the case to determine whether Padilla was prejudiced by counsel's deficient performance.
No comments:
Post a Comment