What Are The Pros And Cons To Mr. Thomas

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Statement of the Issues The issues presented in this case are whether Mr. Thomas’ Sixth Amendment right to effective counsel was violated due to Ms. Advocate’s performance throughout the sentencing proceeding. Also, if Ms. Advocate’s performance throughout the sentencing proceedings fit the Strickland test: deficient performance and prejudice. Statement of the Legal Standard The legal standard of this case is the Sixth Amendment which provides citizens to a fair, public trial and Assistance of Counsel to defend him or her. The Strickland test will also be applied in this case. The Strickland test consists of two parts. The first part is deficient performance and whether the attorney’s performance fell below an reasonable objective …show more content…

Thomas was represented by Annie Advocate for the sentencing proceeding. Annie Advocate was fresh out of law school and was given Mr. Thomas’ case as a pro bono case on July 23, 2014. Annie Advocate was advised by her supervisor that the court’s record room held files of Mr. Thomas’ abusive childhood. Ms. Advocate was supposed to meet Mr. Thomas on the first of August, but failed to and later met on the 17th of August. When both eventually met, Mr. Thomas admitted to the murders and had a sense of remorse. During this meeting, Ms. Advocate learned about Mr. Thomas’ unstable relationship with his family. Mr. Thomas didn’t have money when he murdered the three college students and that he had been job searching. Ms. Advocate also learned that Mt. Thomas was schizophrenic and had a psychotic episode when he committed the crime. He also was unable to pay for his medication for his disorder. Because of his remorse, he would rather have life in prison than the death …show more content…

Advocate began to investigate on the 20th of August and called a list of people Mr. Thomas told her to call because they may be able to help. Unfortunately, none of his family answered, and two of the numbers were no longer in service. Ms. Advocate was able to reach his doctor. Mr. Thomas’ doctor told Ms. Advocate that Mr. Thomas had not renewed his prescription and his doctor offered to pay for his medication. After her conversation with the doctor, Ms. Advocate did not spend more time on the case and worked on different projects for the rest of the week. Ms. Advocate did not receive any calls from Mr. Thomas family and went to investigate some more. She tried to get Mr. Thomas records from the court, but could not since she did not put a two weeks’ notice and was only a few days away from the trial. She did not investigate more for the sentencing proceeding, but instead worked on a multi million-dollar lawsuit. She finally took time out to read his transcript from his trial and felt a sense of hopelessness since there were a lot of aggravating factors against

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