The Sixth Amendment guarantees a defendant the right to counsel and to those who can afford private counsel it guarantees the right to counsel of their choice. But it also guarantees a fair trial. In some instances those rights contradict each other. For example, part of a right to a fair trial is the right to have counsel who will zealously defend you. But when counsel has a conflict that prevents him/her from zealously representing a defendant the right to a fair trial is violated. The right is only preserved when counsel does not have conflicting responsibilities. This question comes up, for example, when counsel represents two defendants in the same trial. If the defendants have conflicting defenses such as to require counsel for one defendant to point the finger at the other defendant a defendant is denied a fair trial since his/her lawyer ends up pointing the finger at one of the clients jointly represented by the lawyer.

In United States v. Turner The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals faced the question of conflicting rights when one member of a multi-defendant drug case was arrested after all of the other defendants had either plead of been convicted. The same lawyer who represented one of the other defendants in sentencing was hired to represent Roosevelt Turner who had recently been arrested. The United States Attorney complained about a possible conflict and the United States District Judge removed Turner’s attorney. Turner went to trial with another attorney and appealed. The appellate court reversed the conviction because Turner had been denied the attorney of his choice.

The only evidence the United States Attorney raised to show a conflict was that either Roosevelt or Anthony Womack both of whom were represented by Irl Baris might want to testify against the other or that one of them might be subpoened to testify against the other. But the appellate court said that the fact that something might happen was not enough to deny a defendant his choice of attorneys. In fact neither turned against the other or was subpoenaed to testify against the other.

Since the denial of Turner the right to the attorney of his choice is a structural error Turner is entitled to a new trial. Afterall no one could tell if he would have been convicted with a different attorney.