North Carolina man Nicholas Ragin had served 10 years in prison before a federal appeals court decided to overturn the 2006 sentence on Friday. Calling the circumstances surrounding Mr Ragin's conviction and sentencing 'extraordinary and egregious', a three-judge panel held that Mr Ragin had been denied his Sixth Amendment right to legal counsel as his attorney, Nikita V. Mackey, had slept through portions of his trial – sometimes for as long as 30 minutes at a time.
'We hold that a defendant is deprived of his Sixth Amendment right to counsel when counsel sleeps during a substantial portion of the defendant's trial,' wrote appeals judge Rodger Gregory. 'Nicholas Ragin's Sixth Amendment right to counsel was violated not because of specific legal errors or omissions indicating incompetence in counsel's representation but because Ragin effectively had no legal assistance during a substantial portion of his trial.'
Mr Ragin will now face a retrial. Though several witnesses, including a government witness and two co-counsel, testified that they had seen Mr Mackey sleeping, the lawyer himself said he could not recall whether he had dozed off during the trial. Sources: Wall Street Journal; The Independent
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