Walker v. Hopper

Hall, Justice.

The heart of this appeal is the contention by attorneys for Walker, a habeas corpus petitioner, that this court should raise the presently applicable standard for testing the effectiveness of appointed counsel whose client enters a guilty plea. It is urged that we should not only require, as we do presently, that counsel assure that the guilty plea is intelligently and voluntarily entered, but that we should also rule that a defendant who has previously stated a desire to plead guilty is nonetheless deprived of the effective assistance of counsel where his attorney is appointed…