iOS app Android app More  Supreme Court Looks At Plea Bargain
Advice: How Much Bad Lawyering Is Allowed?  Supreme Court
Posted: 10/31/11 08:30 PM ET  WASHINGTON -- When Anthony Cooper
shot a fleeing woman in the thigh and buttocks back in 2003, his
lawyer advised him to reject the prosecution's deal because
those below-the-waist wounds would shield him from any
suggestion he tried to kill her. The advice was absurd.  The
question before the Supreme Court on Monday morning was whether
it was absurd enough to violate Cooper's Sixth Amendment right
to effective assistance of counsel.  The facts of Lafler v.
Cooper are straightforward enough: Michigan prosecutors offered
Cooper a lower sentence in exchange for his pleading guilty to
assault with intent to murder. His lawyer told him to reject the
deal, and he did. At trial, Cooper was convicted and received a
stiffer sentence than the one initially offered by prosecutors.
Michigan's solicitor general, John Bursch, spent nearly 20
minutes Monday arguing that suc