The Law: Of Families & Fools

Few constitutional phrases are expanding faster than the Sixth Amendment's guarantee that every criminal defendant shall "have the assistance of counsel for his defense." In 1963, the Supreme Court extended that right to all defendants in all state criminal trials (Gideon v. Wainwrighf). In 1964, the Court ruled that a suspect is entitled to a lawyer as soon as the police start grilling him in the station house (Escobedo v. Illinois). Lower courts are now catching on fast. Items:

> In New York, the State Supreme Court's Appellate Division reversed a murder conviction and ordered a new trial because a man had not been allowed to see his family before confessing to the police. Richard Taylor, 25, had no lawyer when police questioned him in the fatal shooting of a Harlem bill collector. Taylor said that police also denied his request to see his relatives. Found guilty and sentenced to life, Taylor appealed. Even if a suspect does not "rationalize his reasons for asking for his family," ruled the court, "we must assume that he makes such request to obtain help; and he is entitled to have the benefit of their advice, which may include the retention of counsel for him." In short, a suspect's request to see his family may be the only way to protect his right to counsel.

> In Brooklyn, ex-Convict George Maldonado had apparently never heard of the old legal maxim that "the man who defends himself has a fool for a client." "Your Honor, I don't feel that this man, in eight or ten minutes, can defend me," Maidonado protested, after a court had assigned a Legal Aid Society lawyer to handle his latest trial for burglary. "I want to act as my own attorney." The judge refused the request. Maldonado wound up in Sing Sing prison. But U.S District Judge Charles H. Tenney granted Maldonado a conditional writ of habeas corpus on the ground that "one of the most fundamental prerequisites of a fair trial is the right of the accused to defend himself either in person or by counsel of his own choosing." Failing the latter, said Tenney, a defendant's right to be his own lawyer is "unquestionably protected" by the U.S. Constitution.