670
Opinion of the Court
in the large majority of the States.10 And given the current commitment of most jurisdictions to affording court-appointed counsel to indigent misdemeanants while simultaneously preserving the option of probationary punishment, we do not share amicus' concern that other States may lack the capacity and resources to do the same.
Moreover, even if amicus is correct that "some courts and jurisdictions at least [can]not bear" the costs of the rule we confirm today, Fried Brief 23, those States need not abandon probation or equivalent measures as viable forms of punish-10 That ten States in this majority do not provide counsel to every defendant who receives a suspended sentence hardly supports the dissent's dire predictions about the practical consequences of today's decision, see post, at 679-681, and n. 4. The circumstances in which those States currently allow prosecution of misdemeanors without appointed counsel are quite narrow. In Pennsylvania, for example, all defendants charged with misdemeanors enjoy a right to counsel regardless of the sentence imposed, Pa. Rule Crim. Proc. 122(B) (2002); only those charged with "summary offenses" (violations not technically considered crimes and punishable by no more than 90 days' imprisonment, 18 Pa. Cons. Stat. § 106(c)(2) (1998)) may receive a suspended sentence uncounseled. Pa. Rule Crim. Proc. 122(A) (2002); Commonwealth v. Thomas, 510 Pa. 106, 111, n. 7, 507 A. 2d 57, 59, n. 7 (1986). (Typical "summary offenses" in Pennsylvania include the failure to return a library book within 30 days, 18 Pa. Cons. Stat. § 6708 (1998), and fishing on a Sunday, 30 Pa. Cons. Stat. § 2104 (1998).) Gaps in the misdemeanor defendant's right to appointed counsel in other States that extend protection beyond the Sixth Amendment are similarly slight. See, e. g., S. D. Codified Laws §§ 23A-40-6.1, 22-6-2(2) (1998) (defendant charged with misdemeanor enjoys absolute right to appointed counsel unless offense punishable by no more than 30 days' imprisonment); Tex. Code Crim. Proc. Ann., Art. 26.04(b)(3) (Vernon Supp. 2002) (counsel must be appointed to all misdemeanor defendants except those tried before a judge who knows sentence will not include imprisonment).
More typical of the situation that results in a suspended sentence, we think, is a case like Shelton's—a prosecution before a jury for third-degree assault, arising out of a fistfight that followed a minor traffic accident, see App. 15, n. 2. Far from "quite irrelevant," post, at 679, that 34 States already provide an attorney in this situation strongly suggests that the added requirement of providing counsel routinely in suspended sentence cases will not prove unduly onerous.
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