Missouri v. Frye

In Missouri v. Frye, 132 S. Ct. 1399, 1404, 182 L. Ed. 2d 379 (2012), the defendant asserted that his attorney rendered ineffective assistance in failing to inform him of a plea offer, after which the offer expired. Frye, 132 S. Ct. at 1404. The defendant later pled guilty without a plea agreement and was sentenced to a term of imprisonment longer than what he would have served had he accepted the lapsed plea agreement. Id. at 1404-05. In evaluating the defendant's claim of ineffective assistance based on the uncommunicated plea offer, the United States Supreme Court applied the two-pronged test of Strickland. Id. at 1404. After concluding that counsel rendered deficient performance, the Court turned to the second prong of the Strickland test and held that "to show prejudice from ineffective assistance of counsel where a plea offer has lapsed or been rejected because of counsel's deficient performance, defendants must demonstrate a reasonable probability they would have accepted the earlier plea offer had they been afforded effective assistance of counsel." Id. at 1409. Noting that a defendant has no right to be offered a plea bargain, however, the Court further held that a defendant must also show that "if the prosecution had the discretion to cancel it or if the trial court had the discretion to refuse to accept it, there is a reasonable probability neither the prosecution nor the trial court would have prevented the offer from being accepted or implemented." Id. at 1410.