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STATE OF CONNECTICUT v. ROBERT CHAMBERS (SC 18490)
Rogers, C. J., and Katz, Palmer, Vertefeuille, Zarella and McLachlan, Js. Argued March 23--officially released May 25, 2010

Richard W. Callahan, special public defender, for the appellant (defendant). Ronald G. Weller, senior assistant state's attorney, with whom, on the brief, were John A. Connelly, state's attorney, and Patrick J. Griffin, senior assistant state's attorney, for the appellee (state).

Opinion

KATZ, J. In his appeal from the trial court's judgment of conviction,1 the defendant, Robert Chambers, claims that the trial court deprived him of his constitutional rights to due process and a fair trial after his trial counsel had invoked rule 3.3 (a) (3) of the Rules of Professional Conduct on the basis of counsel's conclusion that the defendant intended to offer false testimony.2 In advancing this claim, the defendant raises issues relating to the standard for determining whether counsel properly has invoked rule 3.3 (a) (3), the procedures required to determine whether that standard is met and the procedures to be followed at trial once that standard has been met. The question of what a criminal defense attorney should do when confronted with client perjury at trial has been a subject of considerable debate because of the ethical and constitutional concerns it implicates. See footnotes 13, 15 and 19 of this opinion. It is without question that a defense attorney must furnish zealous advocacy and preserve client confidences, but, at the same time, fulfill his or her duty to the court. In addition, procedures that may be prescribed to address the problem of client perjury have the potential to deprive a defendant of his right to effective assistance of counsel and his rights to due process and a fair trial, which include his right to testify in his own defense. Despite the important issues implicated in this case, however, we cannot address them in any considered way because the state of the record and the specific facts of the present case circumscribe the scope of our review. For that reason, we also need not recite at any length the overwhelming evidence relating to the brutal assault and robbery of a fast-food deliveryman upon which the jury reasonably relied to convict the defendant of assault in the first degree in violation of General Statutes

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