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Evolving Standards Of Reasonableness: The Aba Standards And The Right To Counsel In Plea Negotiations, Margaret Colgate Love
Evolving Standards Of Reasonableness: The Aba Standards And The Right To Counsel In Plea Negotiations, Margaret Colgate Love
Fordham Urban Law Journal
The ABA Criminal Justice Standards have been recognized by the Supreme Court as one of the most important sources for determining lawyer competence in right to counsel cases. Because the constitutional test under the Sixth Amendment is whether defense counsel’s performance was “reasonable” under “prevailing professional norms,” the standard of competence is necessarily an evolving one. The Supreme Court's decision in Padilla v. Kentucky underscores the defense bar’s stake in participating in the ABA standard-setting process to guide the development of defense counsel's obligations in plea negotiations. In addition, to the extent the courts give the ABA Standards credence in …
Prosecutorial Ethics: The Case For The Per Se Rule, Kara S. Donahue
Prosecutorial Ethics: The Case For The Per Se Rule, Kara S. Donahue
Fordham Urban Law Journal
“The integrity of the legal system is essential to public confidence in government. Without public confidence, the rule of law loses its meaning. The prosecutor is often the most visible participant in the criminal justice system, and thus, even the appearance of impropriety in the prosecutor's behavior erodes the public trust. He has a duty to seek justice and truth, not only to convict. This duty creates a dual role for the prosecutor: he is both an advocate seeking to obtain convictions and a minister of justice attempting to discover the truth. The public expects him to fulfill these functions …