Maryland v. Marzullo
Decision Date | 01 May 1978 |
Docket Number | No. 77-784,77-784 |
Citation | 98 S.Ct. 1885,435 U.S. 1011,56 L.Ed.2d 394 |
Parties | State of MARYLAND v. Victor Dennis MARZULLO |
Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
On petition for writ of certiorari to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
The motion of respondent for leave to proceed in forma pauperis is granted.
The petition for a writ of certiorari is denied.
This petition presents a question of fundamental importance to the administration of criminal justice in both the state and federal courts: what minimum standard of competence must be displayed by an attorney for a criminal defendant in order to satisfy the requirement of the Sixth Amendment that the defendant receive the effective assistance of counsel?
Despite the clear significance of this question, the federal courts of appeals are in disarray. Three Circuits subscribe to the view that the representation of a defendant will be deemed adequate as a matter of constitutional law unless it was "such as to make a mockery, a sham or a farce of the trial." United States v. Madrid Ramirez, 535 F.2d 125, 129 (C.A.1 1976); Rickenbacker v. Warden, 550 F.2d 62, 65 (C.A.2 1976); Gillihan v. Rodriguez, 551 F.2d 1182, 1187 (C.A.10 1977). Four Circuits require, however, that defense counsel render "reasonably competent" assistance. United States v. De Coster, 159 U.S.App.D.C. 326, 487 F.2d 1197, 1202 (1973); United States v. Fessel, 531 F.2d 1275, 1278 (C.A.5 1976) ("reasonably effective assistance"); United States v. Easter, 539 F.2d 663, 665-666 (C.A.8 1976) (). The Third and Seventh Circuits have developed their own, apparently different, standards for determining whether effective assistance of counsel has been rendered to a defendant. Moore v. United States, 432 F.2d 730, 736 (C.A.3 1970) (); United States ex rel. Williams v. Twomey, 510 F.2d 635, 641 (C.A.7 1975) (). The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit is internally divided. Compare Saunders v. Eyman, 600 F.2d 728 (C.A.9 1977) () with Cooper v. Fitzharris, 551 F.2d 1162 (C.A.9 1977) ("reasonably effective assistance"), rehearing en banc granted.
This case presents an appropriate occasion for addressing this issue. The District Court, following an earlier decision of the Fourth Circuit which held that "one is deprived of effective assistance of counsel only in those extreme instances where the representation is so transparently inadequate as to make a farce of the trial," Root v. Cunningham, 344 F.2d 1, 3 (C.A.4 1965), found that the representation which had been provided to defendant was adequate for constitutional purposes. The Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit expressly disavowed the test used in Root, adopted a new test requiring "representation within the range of competence demanded of attorneys in criminal cases," and applied this new standard to reverse the District Court. Thus, the choice of standard...
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