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"Why Padilla Doesn?t Matter (Much)"

By Douglas A. Berman

The title of this post is the title of this new piece by Professor Darryl Brown, which is now available via SSRN. Here is the abstract: The U.S. Supreme Court?s decision in Padilla v. Kentucky might herald a breakthrough in the quality of representation provided to immigrants charged with crimes, and more broadly an advance in the Court?s recognition of the role both of plea bargaining in criminal adjudication and of the severe collateral consequences often triggered by convictions for citizen as well as alien defendants.  There are good reasons to suspect, however that Padilla?s practical impact will be modest; for many non-citizen criminal defendants, including probably Jose Padilla himself, its impact will be non-existent.  The Padilla holding seeks to ensure that defense lawyers are aware of severe collateral consequences that attach to convictions, in order both to inform their clients of those consequences to inform plea bargain negotiations among attorneys...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on March 26, 2011 (boomark / email).