Per il giudice della Corte Suprema Sandra O� Connor � arrivato il momento di garantire uno standard minimo per la difesa dei  non abbienti nei processi capitali. 

La Corte Suprema ha riconosciuto che il processo in cui venne condannato a morte 20 anni fa un ex veterano del Vietnam, venne viziato da una evidente incapacit� del difensore, che  non fece nulla per salvare il suo cliente dalla pena capitale.

Too many poor people sentenced to death without a good legal help. Justice Sandra Day O'Connor said it may be time to require minimum standards for lawyers. 

By Anne Gearan - Washington -  The U.S. Supreme Court considered a Vietnam veteran's contention that his lawyer did next to nothing to save him from a death sentence in a 20-year-old case that could clarify death row inmates' right to claim they got bad legal help at trial.

The general issue of poor legal representation for death penalty defendants has troubled at least two Supreme Court justices in recent months. Justice Sandra Day O'Connor said it may be time to require minimum standards for lawyers.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said among all the inmates who have asked the court for last-minute reprieves, she has never seen one who got really good legal help at trial.

Defendants facing execution usually cannot afford to hire their own lawyers, and so get lawyers appointed by the state. Some are experienced, others may be trying their first death case or juggling dozens of other cases at the same time.

Monday's case concerned Gary Bradford Cone, who robbed a Memphis jewelry store, shot a police officer and a bystander, stole a car and threatened a woman before breaking into the home of an elderly couple and beating them to death in 1980.

He claimed drugs and the stress of his wartime experiences led to the crime, and that he was temporarily insane during the spree. A jury convicted him in 1982 and sentenced him to death.

Cone's lawyer was allegedly mentally ill during the trial.

He was later found incompetent to practice law, and he eventually committed suicide.

At issue for the Supreme Court is whether the lawyer, John Dice, did enough to try to persuade the jury to spare Cone a death sentence.

A ruling in Cone's favor would give death row inmates more room to argue, as many do, that their lawyers were inadequate.

The court is also expected to rule on three other death penalty issues by summer, including whether it is unconstitutionally cruel and unusual punishment to execute the mentally retarded.