Of all the protections guaranteed by the United States Constitution, the right to counsel is arguably the most important. As the Supreme Court famously declared in Gideon v. Wainright, a criminal defendant simply cannot be “assured a fair trial unless counsel is provided for him.” Subsequent holdings also established that the right to counsel does not merely afford criminal defendants the euphemistic “warm body with a law degree.” Instead, the Sixth Amendment guarantees defendants the right to “the effective assistance” of counsel as well—both during trial and in pre-trial plea [...]
Crimmigration defense counsel
The boundary between criminal law and immigration law has been blurring for decades. The Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988, for example, formed a core part of the early war on drugs, as its title suggests. It also introduced the aggravated felony into immigration law, altering the lives of hundreds of thousands of migrants in the three decades that followed. Two years later, the Immigration Act of 1990 revamped immigration law. Yet when he signed it, President Bush declared it to be a central component of his administration’s attempt to curtail illicit drug activity. But it wasn’t until 2006 that [...]
Iowa Ct App: CIMT requires general advice under Padilla; cites me
The Court of Appeals of Iowa, the state’s intermediate appellate court, held that a conviction for an offense that would constitute a crime involving moral turpitude requires only general advice that adverse immigration consequences may result. Lopez-Penaloza v. State, No. 10-1205, slip op. (Iowa Ct. App. Sept. 8, 2011) (Eisenhauer, Doyle, and Mullins, JJ.). Judge Doyle wrote the panel’s decision. This case involved an LPR who pleaded guilty to a state tampering with records offense. Lopez-Penaloza, No. 10-1205, slip op. at 2. “She asserts that when discussing immigration consequences, her [...]