Post-Conviction Proceedings.—Counsel is required at the sentencing stage,305 and the Court has held that where sentencing was deferred after conviction and the defendant was placed on probation, he must be afforded counsel at a hearing on revocation of probation and imposition of the deferred sentence.306 Beyond this stage, however, it would appear that the issue of counsel at hearings on the granting of parole or probation, the revocation of parole which has been imposed following sentencing, and prison disciplinary hearings will be determined according to due process and equal protection standards rather than by further expansion of the Sixth Amendment.307
305 Townsend v. Burke, 334 U.S. 736 (1948).
306 Mempa v. Rhay, 389 U.S. 128 (1967) (applied retroactively in McConnell v. Rhay, 393 U.S. 2 (1968)).
307 Counsel is not a guaranteed right in prison disciplinary proceedings. Wolff v. McDonnell, 418 U.S. 539, 560-70 (1974); Baxter v. Palmigiano, 425 U.S. 308, 314-15 (1976). See generally "Rights of Prisoners" under the Fourteenth Amendment.
Last modified: June 9, 2014