Discuss the different leading cases involving ineffective assistance of counsel. How difficult is it to prove ineffective assistance, and how might a defendant attempt to do so? Discuss the reasons that the U.S. Supreme Court has stated for its holdings in these types of cases

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

The different leading cases involving ineffective assistance of counsel are: (1)
United States v. Cronic (1984) which requires specific errors made by the trial
counsel? (2) Strickland v. Washington (1984) which requires that the defendant
must show deficient performance by counsel and a reasonable probability that but
for such deficiency the result would have been different? and (3) Lockhart v.
Fretwell (1993) which made the standard "To show prejudice under Strickland, a
defendant must demonstrate that counsel's errors are so serious as to deprive him of
a trial whose result is fair or reliable, not merely that the outcome would have been
different. It is difficult to prove ineffective assistance, because the Lockhart
standard is higher than from earlier cases. A defendant must have several specific
instances when his counsel failed to do certain things in his defense, such as failure
to conduct reasonable investigation, negligent lawyer, the lawyer fell asleep during
the trial, or the counsel dropped his case without telling him. The U.S. Supreme
Court has created this evolving standard to avoid additional proceedings in a criminal
appeal based on generalities, thus requiring specific instances of conduct to support
the allegation of ineffective assistance of counsel .