Last week the Kentucky Supreme Court vacated a guilty plea in a kidnapping case because the defendant's attorney did not tell his client that he would have to register as a sex offender after he was released from prison. Comm. v. Thompson, No. 2016-SC-000365.
It is critical that criminal defense attorneys advise their clients of all ramifications of a guilty plea or guilty verdict. For instance, criminal defense lawyers must tell their clients if a guilty plea could result in their deportation from the United States. Attorneys must also tell clients about potential mandatory minimum sentences which now exist under Kentucky law in heroin and fentanyl cases. The failure to do so results in criminal defendants receiving ineffective assistance of counsel.
