If the right to the assistance of counsel means less than this, a valued constitutional safeguard is substantially impaired.

Smith's Sixth Amendment right to the assistance of counsel also was violated when the State introduced doctor's testimony at the penalty phase.

The Supreme Court ruled today that a conviction must be set aside whenever a trial judge has interfered with a criminal defendant's constitutional right to the assistance of counsel.

This evolution "firmly established that a person who has not been accorded the constitutional right to the assistance of counsel cannot be sentenced to even one day of imprisonment."

In a trial before such a judge, the constitutional right to the assistance of counsel thus becomes a hollow mockery "a teasing illusion like a munificent bequest in a pauper's will."

He also authored The Right to the Assistance of Counsel: A Reference Guide to the United States Constitution and Criminal Procedure (Greenwood Press).

Instead, the court held that the right to the assistance of counsel was a fundamental right, essential for a fair trial, thereby emphasizing the procedural safeguards which were needed for due process of law.

If he believes that about his lawyers, they said, "it could not possibly then be said that the defendant is competent to make a knowing and voluntary decision to waive the right to the assistance of counsel."

Last week, General Noriega's lawyers asked Judge Hoeveler to dismiss the criminal charges against their client on several grounds, including the allegation that the taping by the Government interfered with his constitutional right to the assistance of counsel.

Failure to grant the motion was a violation of the defendant's Sixth Amendment right to the assistance of counsel, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, in St. Louis, later ruled.

In another Sixth Amendment case, on the right to the assistance of counsel, the court ruled 5 to 4 that defendants who are wrongly deprived of the right to hire a lawyer of their choice are entitled to have a conviction overturned without the need to show that the first-choice lawyer would have achieved a better result.