Ineffective Assistance of Counsel

The Sixth Amendment right to counsel has never been interpreted to mean that all defendants have the right to perfect, or even to very good, counsel. However, if the quality of counsel falls below the minimum standards of the legal profession, a convicted defendant may sometimes have a conviction set aside on the basis of “ineffective assistance of counsel.” In Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668 (1984), the Court set forth the standard for ineffective assistance claims.  Below, Justice Thurgood Marshall described the standards in the course of disagreeing with the majority decision announcing these standards.