Destiny Viera v. State of Rhode Island

Summary

The Rhode Island Supreme Court reviewed consolidated petitions challenging the removal of Destiny Viera’s chosen attorney based on a potential conflict arising from his prior representation of a codefendant. The Court held that the record showed only speculative future conflict, insufficient to overcome Viera’s Sixth Amendment right to counsel of her choice, and quashed the Superior Court’s removal orders.

Holdings

1. A trial court may remove a defendant's chosen counsel when it finds an actual conflict or a serious potential for conflict, but a potential conflict must be supported by a showing that both the likelihood and dimensions of the feared conflict are substantial. Mere speculation about what might occur later in the proceedings is insufficient.
2. The removal of Cooper was not warranted at the time it was ordered because the record showed no actual or imminent conflict and did not establish that the likelihood and dimensions of a feared conflict were substantial enough to require removal.
3. Viera's statements during the July 16 hearing, considered in their totality, sufficiently constituted an oral waiver of the potential conflict, although a written waiver would have been preferable.
4. The decision does not foreclose reconsideration of the conflict issue if later developments create a genuine conflict or otherwise make substitution of counsel advisable.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the Superior Court violated Viera's Sixth Amendment right to counsel of her choice by sua sponte removing Cooper based on a potential conflict.
2. Whether the record supplied a sufficient factual predicate for removal of chosen counsel.
3. Whether Viera validly waived the potential conflict.
4. Whether the alleged deprivation of counsel of choice constituted structural error.

Disposition

quashed