656
Syllabus
Sixth Amendment's domain. In Alabama, the probation revocation hearing is an informal proceeding, at which the defendant has no right to counsel, and the court no obligation to observe customary rules of evidence. More significant, the defendant may not challenge the validity or reliability of the underlying conviction. A hearing so timed and structured cannot compensate for the absence of trial counsel and thereby bring Shelton's sentence within constitutional bounds. Nor does this Court agree with amicus that its holding will substantially limit the States' ability to impose probation. Most jurisdictions already provide a state-law right to appointed counsel more generous than that afforded by the Federal Constitution, while simultaneously preserving the option of probationary punishment. See 511 U. S., at 748-749, n. 12. Even if amicus is correct that some States cannot afford the costs of the Court's rule, those jurisdictions have recourse to the option of pretrial probation, whereby the prosecutor and defendant agree to the defend-ant's participation in a pretrial rehabilitation program, which includes conditions typical of post-trial probation, and the adjudication of guilt and imposition of sentence for the underlying offense occur only if the defendant breaches those conditions. This system reserves the appointed-counsel requirement for the few cases in which incarceration proves necessary, see Gagnon, 411 U. S., at 784, while respecting the constitutional imperative that no person be imprisoned unless he was represented by counsel, Argersinger, 407 U. S., at 37. Pp. 665-672.
(c) The Court does not rule on Alabama's argument that, although the Sixth Amendment bars activation of a suspended sentence for an uncounseled conviction, the Constitution does not prohibit, as a method of effectuating probationary punishment, the imposition of a suspended sentence that can never be enforced. There is not so much as a hint in the Alabama Supreme Court's decision that Shelton's probation term is separable from the prison term to which it was tethered. Absent any prior presentation of the novel position the State now takes, this Court resists passing on it in the first instance. It is for the State Supreme Court to consider before this Court does whether the suspended sentence alone is invalid, leaving Shelton's probation term freestanding and independently effective. See Hortonville Joint School Dist. No. 1 v. Hortonville Ed. Assn., 426 U. S. 482, 488. Pp. 672-674.
Affirmed.
Ginsburg, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which Stevens, O'Connor, Souter, and Breyer, JJ., joined. Scalia, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which Rehnquist, C. J., and Kennedy and Thomas, JJ., joined, post, p. 674.
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