Bad lawyering, but no relief

COLUMBIA, S.C. — A criminal defendant did not need to be advised that he would face mandatory deportation and a permanent ban from the country if he entered an Alford plea to criminal sexual conduct with a minor, ruled the South Carolina Court of Appeals. His counsel should have explicitly advised the man of the immigration penalties, but the defendant did not show how this omission prejudiced him, as he still would have taken the plea and its lesser sentence even if he was told this.