Strickland V. Washington

Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 104 S. Ct. 2052, 80 L. Ed. 2d 674 (1984) ( ), was a United States Supreme Court case that established a two-part test for establishing a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel. Under this test, a criminal defendant may not obtain relief unless he can show that counsel's performance fell below an objective standard of reasonableness, and that counsel's performance gives rise to a reasonable probability that, if counsel had performed adequately, the result of the proceeding—the trial, the sentencing hearing, the appeal—would have been different.