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Supreme Court to Clarify 6th Amendment

Jan 21, 5:19 PM (ET)

By GINA HOLLAND

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court wrangled Wednesday over whether judges must tell the thousands of lawyerless people who plead guilty to crimes each year that an attorney could be helpful.

Justices are clarifying rights under the Constitution's Sixth Amendment, which guarantees legal assistance to accused criminals.

The court was considering the case of former Iowa college student Felipe Tovar, who didn't hire a lawyer when he went to court on drunken driving charges - and didn't get the best deal possible.

Practices vary by state, but judges generally tell defendants they have a right to go to trial and have an attorney. The Supreme Court will decide if they should do more - warning of the disadvantages of pleading guilty without consulting a lawyer.

Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller argued that judges should not be burdened with saying aloud what people know anyway: That attorneys can be helpful in legal situations. It would be different, he said, if Tovar were representing himself in a trial instead of a standard hearing.

Justice Anthony M. Kennedy said the state wrongly downplayed the importance of lawyers for people facing criminal charges. And Justice Sandra Day O'Connor asked what was wrong with a requirement that judges briefly tell a defendant he has a right to an attorney who could help him.

"He doesn't have to be told," Miller said, because defendants are already aware of it.

The justices, overall, seemed more sympathetic to Iowa, which has the backing of the Bush administration, more than 30 states, and prosecutors who fear a ruling that could overturn many old guilty pleas.

"We want to encourage people to confess," Justice Antonin Scalia said. "Why do we want to encourage them to hire a lawyer so they will get off on an irrelevancy?"

"What public policy is there to try to change their mind" from pleading guilty, asked Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist.

"Do defendants really need this?" asked Justice David H. Souter.

Tovar's attorney in the Supreme Court appeal, Theresa Wilson of Des Moines, Iowa, told justices they should ensure that people are "pleading guilty with their eyes open." Tovar should have been advised that his conviction in 1996 could be kept off his record if he met conditions, she said.

Instead, that conviction from his days at Iowa State University counted against him after he got in trouble again. He later was charged with felony drunken driving - his third offense. The Iowa Supreme Court said the first conviction didn't count because he didn't knowingly waive his right to an attorney.

Tovar had asked for a court-appointed attorney after his first arrest but was turned down because he didn't qualify for free legal help and he decided to represent himself. He received a brief jail sentence.

Justice Stephen Breyer said that minor offenses may end up having serious consequences, which attorneys can advise clients about. Immigrants can be deported for small crimes. Three-strikes laws can send a person to prison for life for stealing a chicken. And convictions for certain offenses can put someone on a lifetime list of sex offenders, he said.

The case is Iowa v. Tovar, 02-1541.

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On the Net:

Supreme Court briefs: http://www.abanet.org/publiced/preview/briefs/home.html

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