Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility

Ineffective Assistance of Counsel – Due Process

By: Derek Hawkins//May 31, 2016//

Ineffective Assistance of Counsel – Due Process

By: Derek Hawkins//May 31, 2016//

Listen to this article

7th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Scott R. Schmidt v. Deborah McCulloch

Case No.: 14-3651

Officials: POSNER, WILLIAMS, and HAMILTON, Circuit Judges

Focus: Ineffective Assistance of Counsel – Due Process

Evidence and testimony sufficient to warrant commitment of Appellant.

“Given the uncertainties regarding the efficacy of treatment of psychopathic sex offenders, Dr. Snyder may be right or wrong concerning the defendant’s prospects for being cured, but he was a qualified expert witness and we do not understand Schmidt to be arguing that a reasonable jury could not have believed Snyder’s testimony. The first-person statements that Schmidt challenges illustrate the psychopathic traits that Snyder described, so they were pertinent to the jury’s evaluation of whether Schmidt’s predisposition to commit sexual offenses had changed in the preceding twenty years and whether the sex-offender treatment that he had undergone was likely to have reduced his risk of re-offense. And since Schmidt did not testify, the jury wasn’t given a current view of his perspective on his behavior. And finally even studies that have found positive effects of sex-offender treatment acknowledge that a significant number of the treated offenders re-offend. See id. The uncertainty is especially great with respect to offenders who have mental disorders similar to Schmidt’s. See Dennis M. Doren and Pamela M. Yates, “Effectiveness of Sex Offender Treatment for Psychopathic Sexual Offenders,” 52 International J. Offender Therapy & Comparative Criminology 234, 243 (2008).”

Affirmed

Full Text


Attorney Derek A. Hawkins is the managing partner at Hawkins Law Offices LLC, where he heads up the firm’s startup law practice. He specializes in business formation, corporate governance, intellectual property protection, private equity and venture capital funding and mergers & acquisitions. Check out the website at www.hawkins-lawoffices.com or contact them at 262-737-8825.

Polls

Should Steven Avery be granted a new evidentiary hearing?

View Results

Loading ... Loading ...

Legal News

See All Legal News

WLJ People

Sea all WLJ People

Opinion Digests