No. 18-6580

Wiliiam Scott Fitts v. Barry Goodrich, Warden, et al.

Lower Court: Georgia
Docketed: 2018-11-06
Status: Denied
Type: IFP
Response WaivedIFP
Tags: criminal-procedure due-process fourteenth-amendment Fourteenth-Amendment-due-process guilty-plea ineffective-assistance ineffective-assistance-of-counsel normative-legal-issues plea-bargaining right-to-counsel right-to-effective-assistance-of-counsel sixth-amendment
Latest Conference: 2019-01-04
Question Presented (from Petition)

1. The constitution requires special consideration in assessing the accuseds conduct in guilty pleas especially when parole consequences is adeterminate factor. Fitts had a choice betweena bump-on-a-log and an absent and mute lawyer Does the court violate an accused's rights where he is forced to choose among and between the Sixth Amendment and Fourteen Amendment in deciding whether to plead guiltwhere normative legal issues arean important factor to be considered?

2. When the lawyer was cut out of the pleanegotiations by the prosecutor negotiating directly with the accused's family did this produce an unfair or unreliable proceediig?

3. Is Mr. Fitts being held in violation of his Constitutional right to counsel where he entered a plea pro se to murder in spite of the fact that he had a retained lawyer where the lawyer was present at the plea but did not functionas counsel and where the lawyer would have been ineffective had the case. proceeded to trial?

Question Presented (AI Summary)

Whether the accused's constitutional rights were violated when forced to choose between the Sixth Amendment and Fourteenth Amendment in deciding whether to plead guilty where parole consequences were a determinative factor

Docket Entries

2019-01-07
Petition DENIED.
2018-12-20
DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 1/4/2019.
2018-12-06
Waiver of right of respondents Goodrich, Warden, et al. to respond filed.
2017-11-17
Petition for a writ of certiorari and motion for leave to proceed in forma pauperis filed. (Response due December 6, 2018)

Attorneys

Goodrich, Warden, et al.
Andrew Alan PinsonOffice of the Georgia Attorney General, Respondent
Wiliiam Fitts
William Scott Fitts — Petitioner