Know those immigration consequences, people!
This news is already everywhere, but in case you haven’t heard, the SCOTUS held yesterday in Padilla v. Kentucky that criminal defense attorneys must give correct advice to clients about the immigration consequences of pleading guilty. Failure to do so will be ineffective assistance of counsel. See NACDL’s press release for more.
Obviously, this is something we should all have been doing already, but as Mark Bennet points out, some people don’t because they either don’t know the immigration consequences of a plea, or because “it’s much easier to get the Padillas of the world to plead guilty if you gloss over those nasty consequences.”
Don’t be that PD who gives us all a bad name! If you’re not already, get familiar with the immigration consequences of criminal convictions (also here and many other places).
In more great news yesterday, warrantless wiretaps are still illegal. Hooray!
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2 comments
How could these PDs not already know this? And why in the world would they not discuss this with their clients before entering a plea?
I’m guessing the problem arises most often in smaller, probably more rural courts where PDs don’t see deportable clients very often — if the issue only lands on your plate once every year or two, it could be easy to forget about.
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