Commonwealth Ex Rel. Washington v. Maroney

Opinion by

Mr. Justice Roberts,

The seminal decision of Powell v. Alabama, 287 U.S. 45, 53 S. Ct. 55 (1932), in which a trial judge’s appointment of the entire county bar to defend the Scottboro boys was found to constitute a denial of the “effective assistance of counsel,” has produced what is today an axiomatic judicial assumption that any right to representation includes the right to “effective” or “adequate” representation. But a statement of principle rarely solves concrete cases; the difficult questions, requiring that content be given to this right, remain.

Appellant William F. Washington…