Effective assistance of counsel benefits everyone, not just the accused. A society that cannot trust its criminal justice system fails.Effective assistance of counsel" means that the defense must put the prosecution's case through the "crucible of meaningful adversarial testing. In Illinois, a person has the right to consult with an attorney "alone and in private" at the police station. A postconviction petition challenges a sentence based on violations of constitutional rights. Criminal defendants have a Sixth Amendment right to counsel and that right is guaranteed regardless of the defendant's ability to pay. The Sixth Amendment's right to effective assistance attaches directly to the fidelity and competence of defense counsel's services. First, a court may not restrict defense counsel in the exercise of the representational duties and prerogatives attendant to our adversarial system of justice. Is it true that "ineffective assistance of counsel" can be motioned at any point of a case? §17-12-23 requires the circuit public defender to provide representation in any case prosecuted in a superior court under state law.
