LAFLER v. COOPER - Oyez - U.S. Supreme Court Media
LAFLER v. COOPER - SCOTUSblog - Case Index
LAFLER v. COOPER - Preview of United States Supreme Court Cases, ABA
The Crime Report - Michigan’s Appalling Indigent Defense System
"On Halloween, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case illustrating how people and society suffer when indigent defense systems are chronically underfunded. In the case, Lafler v. Cooper, the Court will decide whether the Constitution is violated when an
attorney’s advice to reject a plea bargain is based on a laughably poor legal error.
However the Court decides, though, the decision will not address the underlying problems that made these errors entirely foreseeable.
In Lafler, Anthony Cooper brings a federal habeas challenge to a Michigan state court conviction. Mr. Cooper was accused of shooting a woman several times in her legs as she was running away. The most serious charge he faced was assault with intent to murder, with the maximum potential sentence being life in prison.
The prosecution made a pre-trial offer: plead guilty to assault with intent to murder and take a prison sentence of approximately 4-7 years.
Mr. Cooper’s court-appointed attorney advised him to reject this plea offer, advising Mr. Cooper that because the victim had been shot below the waist, the prosecution could not establish his intent to kill.
This advice was egregiously incorrect. ... [RESTOFSTORY]
