See my practice in action and its results
Legal Insights
State of Arizona v. Larry Dean Anderson
On November 21, 2023 Robert argued an appeal before the Arizona State Supreme court. His client had been convicted of conspiracy to commit first degree murder. The justices considered two issues. First, the validity of the client's ineffective assistance of counsel for failing to advise him that he was not eligible for parole. Second, whether the Supreme Court should return the case to the trial court to determine whether the State had offered him a plea agreement over 20 years ago. The majority found in favor of Robert's client. See the full opinion and other documents here and the recording and summary here.
Subsequently, Mr. McWhirter presented an evidentiary hearing in December 2024 and established his client had the right to his plea agreement. His client will walk out of prison a free man after 20 years.
Authorship
Robert J. McWhirter has published extensively. His latest book is Fixing the Framers' Failure: the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments and America's New Birth of Freedom (2022). The American Bar Association has published Robert’s books Bills, Quills, and Stills: the History of the Bill of Rights (2015), The Criminal Lawyer's Guide to Immigration Law: Questions and Answers (2nd Ed., 2006), and The Citizenship Flowchart (2007).
In the 2010 United States Supreme Court case of Padilla v. Kentucky, Justice Alito extensively quoted from his book.
Robert also has served on the American Bar Association
Criminal Justice Section and on the Standard Committee, writing the Criminal Justice Standards.
He has had published over 40 other articles in both
English and Spanish on the history of the Bill of Rights,
immigration law, and criminal practice.
