Cite as: 535 U. S. 654 (2002)
Opinion of the Court
265 So. 2d, at 205 ("a probation hearing cannot entertain a collateral attack on a judgment of another circuit").
We think it plain that a hearing so timed and structured cannot compensate for the absence of trial counsel, for it does not even address the key Sixth Amendment inquiry: whether the adjudication of guilt corresponding to the prison sentence is sufficiently reliable to permit incarceration. Deprived of counsel when tried, convicted, and sentenced, and unable to challenge the original judgment at a subsequent probation revocation hearing, a defendant in Shelton's circumstances faces incarceration on a conviction that has never been subjected to "the crucible of meaningful adversarial testing," United States v. Cronic, 466 U. S. 648, 656 (1984). The Sixth Amendment does not countenance this result.
In a variation on amicus' position, the dissent would limit review in this case to the question whether the imposition of Shelton's suspended sentence required appointment of counsel, answering that question "plainly no" because such a step "does not deprive a defendant of his personal liberty." Post, at 676. Only if the sentence is later activated, the dissent contends, need the Court "ask whether the procedural safeguards attending the imposition of [Shelton's] sentence comply with the Constitution." Ibid.
Severing the analysis in this manner makes little sense. One cannot assess the constitutionality of imposing a suspended sentence while simultaneously walling off the procedures that will precede its activation. The dissent imagines a set of safeguards Alabama might provide at the probation revocation stage sufficient to cure its failure to appoint counsel prior to sentencing, including, perhaps, "complete retrial of the misdemeanor violation with assistance of counsel," post, at 677. But there is no cause for speculation about Alabama's procedures; they are established by Alabama statute and decisional law, see supra, at 666 and this page, and they bear no resemblance to those the dissent invents in its effort to sanction the prospect of Shelton's imprisonment on
667
Page: Index Previous 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007