Bobby v. Van Hook
United States Supreme Court
558 U.S. 4 (2009)
Relevant factsFree
Van Hook (defendant) was convicted of murder at a 1985 trial. The Sixth Circuit reversed, ruling his trial counsel had been constitutionally ineffective because the attorney's investigation fell short of the American Bar Association's Guidelines for defense counsel in death penalty cases — Guidelines that were not published until 2003, eighteen years after Van Hook's trial. The Supreme Court granted certiorari.
IssueFree
Whether professional standards may be used to judge the reasonableness of an attorney's performance when those standards did not yet exist at the time of the representation.