United States v. Thomas Raymond Ross

1. A federal jury convicted Thomas Raymond Ross of three drug crimes. Four months later, Ross learned that his lawyer, Malik Ali Muhammad, had been suspended from practice by the California state bar shortly before the start of Ross’s trial, and had never been admitted to practice in the federal district court where Ross was convicted. Ross argues that his Sixth Amendment right to assistance of counsel includes the right to a lawyer who is an active member of the bar at the start of trial, and thus—no matter how well or poorly Muhammad actually performed— Ross’s rights were violated.

Although we’ve never addressed the precise situation where a lawyer was disbarred before trial, we have held that a lawyer suspended or disbarred during trial is not per se ineffective. See United States v. Mouzin, 785 F.2d 682 (9th Cir. 1986); United States v. Hoffman, 733 F.2d 596 (9th Cir.1984). We reasoned that “[a]dmission to the bar allows us to assume that counsel has the training, knowledge, and ability to represent a client who has chosen him.” Mouzin, 785 F.2d at 698 . To prove ineffective assistance, defendants in these cases (like everyone else) had to identify “actual errors and…