State v. Peña Fuentes

¶1 The Sixth Amendment guarantees a criminal defendant the right to assistance of counsel, which includes the right to confer privately with that counsel. U.S. Const, amend. VI. State intrusion into those private conversations is a blatant violation of a foundational right. We strongly condemn “the odious practice of eavesdropping on privileged communication between attorney and client.” State v. Cory, 62 Wn.2d 371, 378, 382 P.2d 1019 (1963). We presume that such eavesdropping results in prejudice to the defendant and have vacated criminal convictions when there was no way to isolate the…