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Interesting Padilla echo in Second Circuit ruling

By Douglas A. Berman

The Second Circuit has an interesting ruling today in US v. Cerna, No. 09-1170 (2d Cir. Apr. 27, 2010) (available here), which seems to reflect the echoes of the Supreme Court's important recent ruling in Padilla concerning effective assistance to noncitizen defendants. Here is how the Cerna opinion begins: This case gives us occasion once again to take note of the exceptionally poor quality of representation often provided by attorneys retained by aliens as they attempt to negotiate the complexities of our immigration law. See Aris v. Mukasey, 517 F.3d 595, 596 (2d Cir. 2008).  Here, despite the fact that the immigration judge (?IJ?) specifically found that the defendant was eligible for relief from deportation in the form of a waiver of inadmissibility under former § 212(c) of the Immigration and Naturalization Act (?INA?), 8 U...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on April 27, 2010 (boomark / email).