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Criminal Procedure • 6th Amendment
CRIMPRO#033
Legal Definition
The 6th Amendment guarantees the right to the assistance of counsel at all critical stages of a criminal proceeding once adversarial judicial proceedings have begun.
Plain English Explanation
The legal system is pretty complicated, as you've probably learned by now in law school. For this reason, it is only fair that—for the sake of genuine justice—everyone have the right to be assisted by an attorney who knows how to navigate the criminal law system. This is commonly known as "the right to an attorney if you cannot afford one," but it also applies to the right to have a privately paid for attorney present during the various stages of a criminal prosecution. What is less known is exactly when that right exists, which is what exams like to test on the most when it comes to the 6th Amendment.
So when does this right officially kick in? When do you have the right to have an attorney be your sidekick and actually be present to assist you in figuring out what to do or say? The answer: as soon as formal charges have been brought.
In other words, if you're arrested and merely subjected to a custodial interrogation, you have a 5th Amendment right to have your attorney present, but you do not yet have a 6th Amendment right to have an attorney provided to you. That right won't kick in until you're actually charged with a crime. Similarly, after you're charged with a crime, it is the 6th Amendment that ensures your ability to have competent counsel help you out.
Another commonly tested subject around the 6th Amendment is how it affects police informants trying to coax confessions from jailed defendants. Imagine a defendant has been charged with a crime and jailed and police decide to move the defendant to a private room so they can question the defendant about the crime. This would obviously be a critical stage of the criminal proceeding, which means the defendant has a 6th Amendment right to have their counsel present. But what happens if, instead, police try to be sneaky and place an informant into the defendant's jail cell who has been tasked with trying to gather information or a confession? Since the informant is acting on behalf of the government's interests, the informant is an agent of the government, which means doing so is a violation of the defendant's 6th Amendment rights because they do not have—nor do they know to request—their attorney present to advise them that maybe they shouldn't tell some things to someone acting on behalf of police.
We covered a lot of information in this card, but let's summarize it a bit to help you better know when to issue-spot a 6th Amendment violation. Put simply: the legal system is complicated, and police/prosecutors can be super sneaky. With this in mind, the 6th Amendment tries to balance out the State's sneakiness by ensuring that a defendant isn't without an attorney during times that they should probably have an attorney (like when they are being questioned by the government or its agents). So if you see the State being sneaky in a way that avoids a defendant having their attorney present, it's quite possibly a 6th Amendment issue.
So when does this right officially kick in? When do you have the right to have an attorney be your sidekick and actually be present to assist you in figuring out what to do or say? The answer: as soon as formal charges have been brought.
In other words, if you're arrested and merely subjected to a custodial interrogation, you have a 5th Amendment right to have your attorney present, but you do not yet have a 6th Amendment right to have an attorney provided to you. That right won't kick in until you're actually charged with a crime. Similarly, after you're charged with a crime, it is the 6th Amendment that ensures your ability to have competent counsel help you out.
Another commonly tested subject around the 6th Amendment is how it affects police informants trying to coax confessions from jailed defendants. Imagine a defendant has been charged with a crime and jailed and police decide to move the defendant to a private room so they can question the defendant about the crime. This would obviously be a critical stage of the criminal proceeding, which means the defendant has a 6th Amendment right to have their counsel present. But what happens if, instead, police try to be sneaky and place an informant into the defendant's jail cell who has been tasked with trying to gather information or a confession? Since the informant is acting on behalf of the government's interests, the informant is an agent of the government, which means doing so is a violation of the defendant's 6th Amendment rights because they do not have—nor do they know to request—their attorney present to advise them that maybe they shouldn't tell some things to someone acting on behalf of police.
We covered a lot of information in this card, but let's summarize it a bit to help you better know when to issue-spot a 6th Amendment violation. Put simply: the legal system is complicated, and police/prosecutors can be super sneaky. With this in mind, the 6th Amendment tries to balance out the State's sneakiness by ensuring that a defendant isn't without an attorney during times that they should probably have an attorney (like when they are being questioned by the government or its agents). So if you see the State being sneaky in a way that avoids a defendant having their attorney present, it's quite possibly a 6th Amendment issue.
