## Facts

- LeReed Shelton, an indigent defendant, was charged in Alabama with third-degree assault, a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in jail and a fine.
- Shelton represented himself at trial and again during a jury trial in Alabama Circuit Court.
- The trial court warned Shelton about the risks of self-representation but did not offer appointed counsel.
- Shelton was convicted and sentenced to 30 days in jail, with the jail term suspended, and placed on two years’ unsupervised probation.
- Under the sentence structure, Shelton could be incarcerated if probation were later revoked and the suspended term activated.

## Issues

1. Whether the Sixth Amendment requires appointment of counsel for an indigent defendant when the court imposes a suspended jail sentence with probation, even though the defendant is not immediately incarcerated.
2. Whether a later incarceration following probation revocation would be attributable to the underlying uncounseled conviction and suspended sentence for Sixth Amendment purposes.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court affirmed the judgment invalidating Shelton’s suspended jail term.
- The Court held that a suspended sentence is a term of imprisonment imposed for the offense of conviction.
- Because activation of the suspended sentence would result in incarceration for the underlying offense, the State may not impose that suspended prison term unless the defendant had counsel at trial or validly waived counsel.
- The Sixth Amendment inquiry focuses on the guilt-adjudication and sentencing stage where eligibility for imprisonment is established, not on the later probation revocation proceeding.
- The Court rejected reliance on cases permitting use of uncounseled convictions in other contexts because those cases did not involve imposition of a prison term for the uncounseled conviction itself.

## Legal Principles

- Absent a knowing and intelligent waiver, no person may be imprisoned for any offense unless represented by counsel at trial.
- A suspended sentence that may be activated to produce incarceration is a prison term for Sixth Amendment purposes.
- The Constitution bars imposing a suspended jail term on an indigent, uncounseled defendant because any later incarceration would flow from the underlying conviction and sentence, not merely from the probation violation.
- States may avoid appointing counsel in minor prosecutions by limiting punishment to noncustodial sanctions that do not include imprisonment, whether immediate or suspended.

## Conclusion

The Sixth Amendment prohibits imposing a suspended term of imprisonment on an indigent defendant who lacked counsel at the trial that produced the conviction, because the suspended sentence may later be activated to incarcerate the defendant for the underlying offense.


Alabama v. Shelton, 535 U.S. 654 (2002)