Federal cases, Criminal: By topic

An indigent criminal defendant cannot be subjected to actual imprisonment unless provided with counsel. Specifically, the right to counsel applies if the defendant could actually be imprisoned, even for so-called petty offenses where no jury trial is required or the sentence would be less than six months.

The refusal of a state court to appoint counsel to represent an indigent defendant at a trial in which he was convicted of robbery did not deny him due process of law in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Suppression by the prosecution of evidence favorable to an accused who has requested it violates due process where the evidence is material either to guilt or to punishment, irrespective of the good faith or bad faith of the prosecution.

The Court found that double jeopardy applies to an individual who is tried as a juvenile and is then later tried as an adult.

There was discrimination between the rich and the poor which violates the Fourteenth Amendment because indigent defendant's sole appeal was decided without benefit of counsel in a state criminal case.

A statute of California making it a misdemeanor for anyone knowingly to bring or assist in bringing into the State a nonresident "indigent person" held invalid as an unconstitutional burden on interstate commerce.

Landmark unanimous ruling that states are required under the Sixth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution to provide an attorney to defendants in criminal cases who are unable to afford their own.

Under the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment, Court held that indigent Illinois convicts may not be denied the right to appeal by inability to pay for a trial transcript and are entitled to receive certified copy of the entire trial record without cost.

The Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment applies to juvenile defendants as well as adult defendants.

Under the Fifth Amendment, any statements that a defendant in custody makes during an interrogation are admissible as evidence at a criminal trial only if law enforcement told the defendant of the right to remain silent and the right to speak with an attorney before the interrogation started, and the rights were either exercised or waived in a knowing, voluntary, and intelligent manner.

Grandma gets jail time and fined for living with her son and grandchildren. Supreme Court rules for Grandma, reverses lower court in one of the decisions that established "a constitutional right to family integrity."

Under the Sixth Amendment, counsel must be provided to all defendants charged with a capital felony in state court regardless of that defendant's ability to pay.

To prove that assistance of criminal counsel was so ineffective as to deny the Sixth Amendment right to counsel, a defendant must show that counsel's representation fell below an objective standard of reasonableness and prejudiced the defense so as to deprive the defendant of a fair trial. The court must indulge a strong presumption that counsel's conduct falls within the wide range of reasonable professional assistance.

It is a denial of equal protection to limit punishment to payment of a fine for those who are able to pay it, but to convert the fine to imprisonment for those who are unable to pay it.