The Supreme Court ruled in favor of a Louisiana death row inmate whose defense attorney admitted his guilt over his objections, and said in its Monday ruling that a defendant has the right to insist that his lawyer refrain from admitting guilt even when the lawyer disagrees.
The justices ruled 6-3 in favor of Robert McCoy, who was arrested in 2008 after three of his estranged wife’s family members were shot and killed in Bossier City, La., and said his lawyer violated his constitutional rights under the Sixth Amendment.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg delivered the opinion of the court and was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts, and Justices Anthony Kennedy, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan. Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, and Neil Gorsuch dissented.
The ruling reverses the decision from the Louisiana Supreme Court and remanded the case. Monday’s decision could pave the way for McCoy to receive a new trial.
“With individual liberty — and, in capital cases, life — at stake, it is the defendant’s prerogative, not counsel’s, to decide on the objective of his defense: to admit guilt in the hope of gaining mercy at the sentencing stage, or to maintain his innocence, leaving it to the state to prove his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt,” Ginsburg wrote in her opinion.
The case stems back to McCoy’s 2008 arrest, after which he was appointed a public defender. His family, though, hired another lawyer, Larry English, in March 2010 after McCoy’s relationship with the public defender soured.
English told McCoy he intended to admit to the jury his client’s guilt, despite McCoy’s objections. English wanted his client to avoid the death penalty.
McCoy and his family tried to fire English after he expressed his intention to admit McCoy’s guilt, and they asked the court to remove English from the case. The court denied the request.
In court, English told the jury McCoy was guilty, and said he “made a determination … that the evidence in this case is … overwhelming against Mr. McCoy.”
The jury found McCoy guilty of three counts of first-degree murder, and he was sentenced to death.
