The Right to Competent Counsel

Been a while since my last post. I'm sorry. 2L year now. Same as the first. A little bit wiser, but a little bit worse.

In Strickland v. Washington, the supreme court held that in order for a death sentence to be reversed on account of inadequate counsel, the defendant must show 1) defense counsel's legal strategy at sentencing was unreasonable and 2) the defendant suffered some prejudice as a result of this unreasonable strategy.

The first prong seems self-explanatory, but I recall the professor saying that the court will accept any strategy, as long as the attorney claims to have had a plan at the time.