No. 19-8730

Westley Kennedy v. United States

Lower Court: Eleventh Circuit
Docketed: 2020-06-17
Status: Denied
Type: IFP
Response WaivedIFP
Tags: 6th-amendment adversarial-process conflict-of-interest guilty-plea right-to-counsel sixth-amendment structural-error
Key Terms:
DueProcess HabeasCorpus
Latest Conference: 2020-09-29
Question Presented (AI Summary)

Did the denial of Westley Kennedy's right to conflict-free counsel constitute a structural error or a breakdown of the adversarial process that requires vacatur of his guilty plea without any additional showing of prejudice?

Question Presented (OCR Extract)

Question Presented The Sixth Amendment guaranteed Westley Kennedy the right to counsel with undivided loyalties. The government knew that Kennedy’s court-appointed lawyer was also representing, in a related case, Tawan Carter, a cooperating defendant who incriminated Kennedy. Both men were charged with identical conspiracies (possibly the same conspiracy) and both pleaded guilty, but Carter got a 46-month sentence while Kennedy got 20 years. Did the denial Kennedy’s right to conflict-free counsel, which the prosecution could have cured at any stage but did not, constitute either a structural error or a breakdown of the adversarial process that requires vacatur of Kennedy’s guilty plea without any additional showing of prejudice? ii

Docket Entries

2020-10-05
Petition DENIED.
2020-06-25
DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 9/29/2020.
2020-06-19
Waiver of right of respondent United States of America to respond filed.
2020-06-12
Petition for a writ of certiorari and motion for leave to proceed in forma pauperis filed. (Response due July 17, 2020)

Attorneys

United States of America
Jeffrey B. WallActing Solicitor General, Respondent
Jeffrey B. WallActing Solicitor General, Respondent
Westley Kennedy
Ricardo J. BascuasUniversity of Miami School of Law, Petitioner
Ricardo J. BascuasUniversity of Miami School of Law, Petitioner