United States v. Cronic
- Decided
- May 14, 1984
- Docket
- 82-660
- Status
- Published
- Jurisdiction
- Federal
Cited 6,497 timesNo negative treatment found in this library
What later courts said
- recognizing that counsel's conduct may be so egregious that "no amount of showing of want of prejudice would cure it" — Commonwealth v. Grant (2002)
- recognizing that the right to counsel is “so basic to a fair trial that [its] infraction can never be treated as harmless error” — Antonio Darnell Robinson v. John Ignacio, Warden (2004)
- holding that the presumed prejudice doctrine did not apply where counsel was afforded twenty-five days for trial preparation — Commonwealth v. Williams (2008)
Each line is a later court’s own words about this case, not a summary. Read the opinion before relying on it.
How the opinion begins
Justice Stevens delivered the opinion of the Court.
Respondent and two associates were indicted on mail fraud charges involving the transfer of over $9,400,000 in checks between banks in Tampa, Fla., and Norman, Okla., during a 4-month period in 1975. Shortly before the scheduled trial date, respondent’s retained counsel withdrew. The court appointed a young lawyer with a real estate practice to represent respondent, but allowed him only 25 days for pretrial preparation, even though it had taken the Government over four and one-half years to investigate the case and it had reviewed thousands of documents during that investigation. The two codefendants agreed to testify for the Government; [*650] respondent was convicted on 11 of the 13 counts in the indictment and received a 25-year sentence.
The Court of Appeals reversed the conviction because it concluded that respondent did not “have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence” that is guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment to the Constitution. [1]
Statutes cited
Cite this
United States v. Cronic, 466 U.S. 648 (1984)Read the full opinion
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