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| Justices Seem Sympathetic to Defendant |
| By nytimes.com |
| Published: 10/14/2009 |
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WASHINGTON — Several Supreme Court justices on Tuesday appeared sympathetic to a criminal defendant who unwittingly agreed to be deported by pleading guilty to a drug crime. But the justices seemed uncertain about whether they could fashion a legal rule that would address extreme cases without causing turmoil in the criminal justice system. “Your argument has an appeal,” Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. told Stephen B. Kinnaird, a lawyer for the defendant, “because removal is such a harsh consequence, particularly for someone like your client, who had been in the United States for a long time.” The question in the case, Padilla v. Kentucky, No. 08-651, was whether bad legal advice about a collateral consequence of a guilty plea amounted to ineffective assistance of counsel under the Sixth Amendment. The defendant, Jose Padilla, has lived in the United States for 40 years, served in the Vietnam War and is a legal permanent resident. Mr. Padilla, a commercial truck driver, was arrested in 2001 after the authorities in Kentucky found more than 1,000 pounds of marijuana in his truck. He pleaded guilty to marijuana trafficking, a felony, and received a five-year sentence. Read More. |
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