Bufflehead Cabin

In a troubling 5-to-4 ruling, the Supreme Court has significantly weakened the Sixth Amendment’s right to legal counsel. The decision came in the case of Jesse Montejo, a Louisiana man sentenced to death for murder based on incriminating statements that he made when the police questioned him without his lawyer present. … In an angry dissent, Justice John Paul Stevens wrote that the 1986 opinion, which he wrote, was designed to ensure the right to counsel at every critical stage of prosecution. The court has now put the fairness, integrity and credibility of the justice system at unnecessary risk.