New Right-to-Counsel Rulings Address Bail and Waiver
State courts in Maryland and Indiana have recently broken new ground in the right-to-counsel area. First, a trial judge in Baltimore ruled inRichmond v. District Court that indigent defendants have a Sixth Amendment right to be represented by counsel at bail hearings. The decision is described in more detail at The Blog of Legal Times. Additional coverage appears in The Daily Record.
Second, the Indiana Supreme Court ruled in Hopper v. State that defendants who wish to waive their right to counsel and plead guilty must be advised of the benefits of having a lawyer during plea negotiations. The United States Supreme Court had previously rejected such “formulaic” requirements for a valid waiver of the right to counsel in Iowa v. Tovar, 541 U.S. 77 (2004). However, unlikeTovar, the new case was decided not on Sixth Amendment grounds but on the basis of the Indiana Supreme Court’s general supervisory authority over lower state courts.
If it is affirmed on appeal and replicated in other jurisdictions, the Baltimore ruling is likely the more significant of the two.