Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Criminal Law Blogs -> Fourth Amendment

Criminal Law

: Fourth Amendment

ID: Defense counsel not ineffective for not forecasting Gant

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Defense counsel was not ineffective for not forecasting Gant under which defendant might well have prevailed. Hoskins v. State, 2010 Ida. App. LEXIS 53 (July 2, 2010)*: It appears that if the standards announced in Gant were applied, a suppression motion might have merit in Hoskins' case. That does not mean, however, that Hoskins has shown that he received ineffective assistance of counsel. The Sixth Amendment entitles criminal defendants to reasonably competent counsel, but not perfect or prescient counsel. ... [¶] Despite his protests to the contrary, Hoskins is asking this Court to hold his defense counsel deficient for failing to anticipate future developments in the law. The constitutional standard for effective assistance of counsel does not demand such prescience...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on July 08, 2010 (boomark / email).