S.Ct. Grants Cert in Texas Indigent Defense Case

Earlier today the U.S. Supreme accepted a Texas case, Rothgery v. Gillespie County, Texas (07-440).  Lyle Denniston has, "Court to rule on right to lawyer," at SCOTUS Blog.

The Supreme Court agreed on Monday to further clarify when a suspect taken into custody by police has a right to a lawyer. The question is whether that right sets in when an individual has been taken before a magistrate, who finds reason to believe a crime has been committed and sends the individual to jail, or whether it only ataches when a prosecutor prepares to or makes a charge.

The case of Rothgery v. Gillespie County, Texas (07-440) was one of three newly granted cases.

And:

The new right-to-counsel case the Justices will hear, with oral argument likely in March, involves a Fredericksburg, Texas, man, Walter Allen Rothgery, who sought but was denied the aid of an attorney when he appeared before a magistrate at a probable cause hearing. The magistrate found probable cause to support a charge that Rothgery was a felon who had a gun; Rothgery was sent to jail. He was released on bond, but rearrested later after a grand jury indicted him. Once he obtained a lawyer, the charges were dismissed; the felony allegation against him turned out to have been an error because charges against him in California had been dismissed.

Rothgery sued the county in a civil rights lawsuit over the denial of a lawyer at the first hearing. The County opposed the lawsuit, contending that the right to counsel did not attach until he actually had been indicted — a claim ultimately upheld by the Fifth Circuit Court. Rothgery’s appeal was supported by 22 law professors urging the Justices to clarify when the right to counsel attaches.

More information will no doubt be posted at SCOTUS Wiki, here.  I'll add the direct link as soon as it's available.

Here's is a paragraph from AP's initial report by Pete Yost:

In other action, the court:

-Agreed to hear a case from Texas in which a federal appeals court ruled that a criminal defendant does not have a constitutional right to a lawyer in certain preliminary court proceedings. Walter Allen Rothgery asked for lawyer following his arrest in July 2002 on suspicion of being a felon in possession of a gun. Gillespie County, Texas, did not appoint a lawyer to represent Rothgery until after his indictment six months later. The charges were later dropped and Rothgery filed a civil rights lawsuit against the county (Rothgery v. Gillespie County, 07-440).