Opinion ID: 2720885
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Mr. Lewis’s federal criminal case

Text: Mr. Lewis contends the lack of federal materials at NCDC hindered his ability to decide whether to accept the federal government’s time-sensitive plea agreement and prevented him from assisting his counsel in his pending federal criminal case. See ROA at 253, 256, 260. As noted above, “providing legal counsel is a constitutionally acceptable alternative to a prisoner’s demand to access a law library.” Taylor, 183 F.3d at 1204. That principle applies to Mr. Lewis’s demand to obtain federal materials within a law library because he had appointed counsel in his federal criminal case. In his criminal case, Mr. Lewis’s counsel assessed the Fourth Amendment exclusionary rule’s good-faith exception’s applicability to Mr. Lewis’s case. See Aplt. Br. at 15; ROA at 252-53. He advised Mr. Lewis to take a plea deal under which he would receive a 10-year sentence instead of a 20-year sentence in exchange for waiving his right to a suppression hearing. See id. Mr. Lewis followed this advice. See id. Moreover, although the Sixth Amendment provides a right to counsel or a right to proceed pro se, it does not provide a right to assist appointed counsel with legal research. Mr. Lewis therefore cannot state a -19- claim related to his federal criminal case based on the lack of federal materials in the law library. 10