State v. Rodriguez

Petition for Certification addressing the requirements of criminal lawyers to advise their clients of immigration consequences of guilty pleas.

The ACLU-NJ filed a Petition for Certification on behalf of a man who pled guilty to a low-level drug crime (minor distribution) in 2005 and now faces deportation. We asked the New Jersey Supreme Court to review the legal question of whether it is ineffective assistance of counsel for a criminal defense attorney to inform a defendant that a proposed plea could have immigration consequences, but who fails to inform the defendant that the plea in question would lead to near-certain deportation, and also whether this type of ineffective assistance claim can be raised retroactively.