Strickland V. Washington Case Study

This case regarding Hinton involves the sixth amendment, various examples of how one can file a motion to suppress a charge/extend the trial, and goes off of the same basis and similarity of “Strickland v Washington”. This Supreme Court case all began in 1985 when a serious of restaurant robberies turned deadly in relatively the same way. Authorities had no leads until one of the restaurant managers survived an attack and picked out Mr. Hinton from a group of pictures presented before him. The police had thus arrested Hinton while recovering a revolver belonging to his mother, which is supposedly the murder weapon, and had charged him with two counts of capital murder. The only defense that worked for Hinton in his criminal trial is the ineffective …show more content…
Since the six bullets recovered was the only physical evidence, questions were raised about the state courts decision. According to other state officials, the bullets neither matched each other from the different shootings nor the actual Hinton revolver that was recovered. Among further investigation into this case, the Alabama Supreme Court denied review by a 4-to-3 vote. Hinton then filed this petition for a writ of certiorari and forma pauperis. A writ of certiorari is a document signed by the defendant asking the court to review the lower court’s decision more carefully. Forma pauperis is filed when someone cannot afford a lawyer in the hopes of a judge giving the defendant a waiver to have one at a normal cost .In so doing, the Supreme Court had stated that Hinton’s sixth amendment had been violated because his lawyer wasn’t aware of the fact that Alabama law could allow him to acquire more funding in need of an expert witness (firearms expert). Therefore, the Supreme Court found that Hinton’s lawyer wasn’t minimally competent due to