Update: I spent some time over the weekend thinking about this case. It seems to me that one likely upshot of Harbison is that some states that currently provide for the appointment of counsel at the clemency stage will stop doing so. After all, why spend scarce state funds to provide for something that the federal government will provide? This is arguably an inefficient response from a global point of view, since the federal government pays lawyers $175 per hour in capital cases, while most states pay far less -- for example, North Carolina pays $95 per hour in capital cases. But from the standpoint of any individual state, it's fiscally sound. Original Post: To paraphrase Bob Dylan, the times, they aren't a-changin'. That's the basic upshot of the United States Supreme Court's latest criminal law pronouncement, Harbison v. Bell, available here. The fact that Harbison leaves the law unchanged justifies the title of this post, but I actually think that the issue is reasonably interesting, so I'm posting about it anyhow. Harbison is a capital case from Tennessee. The defendant was convicted, sentenced to death, lost his direct appeals, and got no relief in the state post-conviction process. His case moved to federal court, and new counsel was appointed to represent him. He lost again in the district court, and lost a split decision in the circuit court. With the end of the road in sight, defense counsel then moved to expand the scope of counsel's representation to include representation [...]
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