In McCoy v. Louisiana, 584 U.S. ___, 138 S. Ct. 1500 (2018), the US Supreme Court held that a defendant’s Sixth Amendment counsel right was violated when trial counsel admitted guilt over the defendant’s intransigent objection. In this post, I’ll discuss what impact, if any, McCoy has on North Carolina law. In McCoy, the defendant was charged with three counts of capital first-degree murder. The defendant pleaded not guilty and consistently maintained his innocence. McCoy asserted that he was out of State at the time of the killings and that corrupt police killed the victims in a drug deal gone bad. 138 S. Ct. at 1506. Defense counsel however concluded that the evidence against the defendant was overwhelming and that absent an admission at the guilt stage that the defendant was the killer, it would be impossible to avoid a death sentence. The defendant was furious when he learned that counsel planned to concede that he committed the murders. The defendant told counsel not to make the concession, and pressed counsel to pursue acquittal. Id. Nevertheless, during opening statements at the guilt phase, defense counsel told the jury there was “no way reasonably possible” that they could hear the prosecution's evidence and reach “any other conclusion than Robert McCoy was the cause of these individuals' death.” Id. The defendant protested to the court, to no avail. Continuing his opening statement, defense counsel told the jury the evidence is “unambiguous,” “my client committed three murders.” Id. at 1507. The defendant testified, maintaining [...]
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