In this unit you discussed the Sixth Amendment right to counsel and how essential it is as a safeguard to ensure the constitutional rights of criminal defendants. Your reading assignment this week, Chapter 8 in the Constitutional Law for Criminal Justice digital book, describes the importance of the right to counsel and charts the history of case law in which the U.S. Supreme Court established the right to counsel for indigent criminal defendants. Based on your reading of this chapter and your research and reading of key right to counsel cases listed below, describe the evolution of the right to counsel by describing each of the following cases in your own words. If you would like to quote a line or two to supplement your own explanations, be sure to use proper quotation marks.
For each case, provide a brief expository essay of the facts, describe the Court’s decision, and explain the Court’s reasoning (the reasons why the Court decided the way it did). Include in-text citations and references in APA 6th edition formatting. Please visit the Purdue Global Writing Resources for more information on APA 6th edition formatting.
