Last February, Judges Merritt, Batchelder, and Rogers announced in Turner v. United States, 15-6060 that they did not like Sixth Circuit precedent holding that the right to counsel (and thus the right to effective assistance of counsel) did not start until after a defendant is charged, but were bound to follow the precedent. We discussed the case here.
Apparently Judges Merritt, Batchelder, and Rogers are not the only judges on the court who have concerns. Today, the Sixth Circuit unanimously ruled to rehear the case en banc. This is a very exciting development. Anyone who has been involved with a defendant charged in state court and facing the possibility of federal charges knows just how important it is to have effective representation during the gestation period, so to speak, of a potential federal action. The NACDL filed an amicus brief in support of en banc rehearing.
No schedule has yet been set. Perhaps we could have a double header one day this summer, with Stitt in the morning and Turner in the afternoon?
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