The Supreme Court judges met in conference this morning and, this afternoon, announced some cert. grants.
Included among the cert. grants is a habeas case. The first one in many months. The case is called Lafler v. Cooper. According to SCOTUSblog, here's the issue:
Whether a state habeas petitioner is entitled to relief when his counsel deficiently advises him to reject a favorable plea bargain but the defendant is later convicted and sentenced pursuant to a fair trial.
I am a little worried since the habeas petitioner won below. It's also another Sixth Circuit case, which often competes with the Ninth Circuit for the title of "Court-Most-Likely-To-Be-Reversed-In-Habeas-Cases." I am looking forward to reading more about it.
The case appears to share a similarity of issue with a front-end case, on which the Court also granted cert. today. That case is called Missouri v. Frye. Here's the issue:
Can a defendant who validly pleads guilty assert a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel by alleging that, but for counsel's error in failing to communicate a plea offer, he would have pleaded guilty with more favorable terms? What remedy, if any, should be provided for ineffective assistance of counsel during plea bargain negotiations if the defendant was later convicted and sentenced pursuant to constitutionally adequate procedures?
More details in later posts.
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