Represented by a Racist: Why Courts Rarely Grant Relief to Clients of Racist Lawyers

Paul Messick
2021
Courts usually don't grant habeas claims for criminal defendants who allege that their lawyer's racism prejudiced their defense unless the racial animus is obvious on the cold trial record. In Ellis v. Harrison, the Ninth Circuit had the opportunity to relax this standard and grant habeas relief to a client of a known racist lawyer, Donald Ames, even though evidence of Ames's racism was not apparent on the trial record. While the court did grant habeas relief, it did so without much
more » ... effect, leaving the remaining clients of Donald Ames and other racist lawyers, whose animus remains unknown to the court, without a remedy. While ten of the eleven en banc judges in Ellis voted to grant habeas relief, only four joined a concurrence that would have created a per se rule of prejudice when a lawyer is found to harbor extreme racial animus towards their client's racial group despite both the State and the defendant's arguments in favor of the per se rule. Why?
doi:10.15779/z38vh5cj86 fatcat:xtgsqia33vgp5f4z6kuhbmz3ji