counsel should comply with the ABA Guidelines for the Appointment and Performance of Counsel in 
Death Penalty Cases. 
(d) Defense counsel should seek to reform and improve the administration of criminal justice. When 
inadequacies or injustices in the substantive or procedural law come to defense counsel’s attention, he or 
she should stimulate efforts for remedial action. 
(e) Defense counsel, in common with all members of the bar, is subject to standards of conduct stated in 
statutes, rules, decisions of courts, and codes, canons, or other standards of professional conduct. Defense 
counsel has no duty to execute any directive of the accused which does not comport with the law or such 
standards. Defense counsel is the professional representative of the accused, not the accused’s alter ego. 
(f) Defense counsel should not intentionally misrepresent matters of fact or law to the court. 
(g) Defense counsel should disclose to the tribunal legal authority in the controlling jurisdiction known 
to defense counsel to be directly adverse to the position of the accused and not disclosed by the prosecutor. 
(h) It is the duty of defense counsel to know and be guided by the standards of professional conduct 
as defined in codes and canons of the legal profession applicable in defense counsel’s jurisdiction. Once 
representation has been undertaken, the functions and duties of defense counsel are the same whether 
defense counsel is assigned, privately retained, or serving in legal aid or defender program. 
11 
 
Tricky Issues in Representation 
Defendants sometimes want to have a friend or family member speak up for them, but, the Court will not 
permit that.  The right to counsel means the right to be represented by an attorney, someone legally trained 
and recognized as a member of the bar association. Similarly, defendants may not necessarily get the attorney 
of their choice. For example, in Wheat v. United States, 486 U.S. 153 (1988), one defendant who wanted 
to be represented by the same attorney who was representing his accomplice/co-conspirator in a complex 
drug distribution conspiracy was not allowed to have that attorney. The Court disallowed his application for 
the appointment of counsel noting that irreconcilable and unwaivable conflicts of interest would be created 
since there was the likelihood that the petitioning defendant would be called to testify at a subsequent trial 
of his co-defendant and that his co-defendant would be testifying in petitioner’s trial. On the other hand, in 
United States. v. Gonzalez-Lopez, 553 U.S. 285 (2008), the Court reversed the defendant’s conviction because 
the trial court erroneously deprived the defendant of his choice of counsel. The defendant, Gonzales-Lopez, 
had hired counsel from a different state, and during pretrial proceedings, the judge and the counsel had some 
disagreements. The judge then prohibited the attorney from taking part in the defendant’s trial. The Court 
found that a trial judge violated the defendant’s Sixth Amendment rights. 
Defendants cannot repeatedly “fire” their appointed counsel as a stall tactic, and, at some point, the court 
will not allow the defendant to substitute attorneys and will require the defendant work with whatever 
11. ABA Standard 4- 1.2 The Function of Defense Counsel (2015). Criminal Justice: Prosecution and Defense Function. American Bar 
Association. 
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