Fred Stein v. United States

The principal question for determination in this case is whether appellant Stein at the trial in which he was convicted received the effective assistance of counsel guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution. During the course of preliminaries to the actual trial, at least three lawyers of his own choosing appeared — a Mr. Weiss, a Mr. Sherman and a Mr. Sweeney. Of the three, Mr. Sweeney seems to have made more court appearances. Three continuances were granted. The last continuance was for a period from August 12th to September 16th. Mr. Sweeney was instrumental in securing the third continuance. On the day last set for trial, appellant and his counsel Sweeney appeared. They asked for a fourth continuance on the following grounds: that counsel was unprepared since he had learned only three days earlier that the trial would be held at such time; that there was a variance between the trial memorandum submitted by the government and the indictment; and that counsel was not in the right state of mind to adequately defend appellant because of certain charges which had recently been made against him. The court in the exercise of its discretion denied the motion…