Post by Logan on Jun 10, 2016 14:08:18 GMT -6
Maine defendant who lost his right to an attorney appeals to U.S. Supreme Court
A man convicted of a South Portland armed robbery has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether Maine’s courts overstepped their bounds by stripping him of his constitutional right to a lawyer at trial and by ordering him to represent himself.
If the nation’s highest court takes up Joshua Nisbet’s case, it could become a national test of where people’s rights to a lawyer in a criminal case end, and whether criminal defendants can be forced to represent themselves as punishment for misbehavior.
Although Nisbet had no one to represent him at his trial in 2014, he has an attorney now. Jamesa Drake, an adjunct professor at University of Maine School of Law with a law practice in Auburn, filed a petition on his behalf to the U.S. Supreme Court that was docketed on June 1.
There is no guarantee the high court will hear the case, but Drake argues in her 24-page petition that federal appellate courts have issued conflicting opinions on the question and that state courts also have different standards.
Read more: www.pressherald.com/2016/06/09/maine-defendant-who-lost-his-right-to-an-attorney-appeals-to-u-s-supreme-court/
A man convicted of a South Portland armed robbery has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether Maine’s courts overstepped their bounds by stripping him of his constitutional right to a lawyer at trial and by ordering him to represent himself.
If the nation’s highest court takes up Joshua Nisbet’s case, it could become a national test of where people’s rights to a lawyer in a criminal case end, and whether criminal defendants can be forced to represent themselves as punishment for misbehavior.
Although Nisbet had no one to represent him at his trial in 2014, he has an attorney now. Jamesa Drake, an adjunct professor at University of Maine School of Law with a law practice in Auburn, filed a petition on his behalf to the U.S. Supreme Court that was docketed on June 1.
There is no guarantee the high court will hear the case, but Drake argues in her 24-page petition that federal appellate courts have issued conflicting opinions on the question and that state courts also have different standards.
Read more: www.pressherald.com/2016/06/09/maine-defendant-who-lost-his-right-to-an-attorney-appeals-to-u-s-supreme-court/