Blaine Lafler, Petitioner v. Anthony Cooper (566 U.S. 156)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided March 21, 2012 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 566 U.S. 156 · 132 S. Ct. 1376
- Decided
- March 21, 2012
- Term
- October Term 2011
- Vote
- 5–4
- Majority author
- Justice Kennedy
- Issue area
- Civil Rights
- Disposition
- Vacated and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
Opinion excerpt
Justice Kennedy delivered the opinion of the Court. In this case, as in Missouri v. Frye, ante, p. 134, also decided today, a criminal defendant seeks a remedy when inadequate assistance of counsel caused nonacceptance of a plea offer and further proceedings led to a less favorable outcome. In Frye, defense counsel did not inform the defendant of the plea offer; and after the offer lapsed the defendant still pleaded guilty, but on more severe terms. Here, the favorable plea offer was reported to the client but, on advice of counsel, was rejected. In Frye, there was a later guilty plea. Here, after the plea offer had been rejected, there was a full and fair trial before a jury. After a guilty verdict, the defendant received a sentence harsher than that offered in the rejected plea bargain. The instant case comes to the Court with the concession that counsel’s advice with respect to the plea offer fell below the standard of adequate assistance of counsel guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment, applicable to the States through the Fourteenth Amendment. I On the evening of March 25, 2003, respondent pointed a gun toward Kali Mundy’s head and fired. From the record, it is unclear why respondent did this, and at trial it was sug-gested that he might have acted either in self-defense or in defense of another person. In any event the shot missed and Mundy fled. Respondent followed in…
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