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Page Number: 7

4 

GARZA v. IDAHO 

Opinion of the Court 

U. S.  648,  659  (1984),  or  left  “entirely  without  the  assis-
tance of counsel on appeal,” Penson v. Ohio, 488 U. S. 75, 
88  (1988).  Similarly,  prejudice  is  presumed  “if  counsel 
entirely fails to subject the prosecution’s case to meaning-
ful  adversarial  testing.”  Cronic,  466  U. S.,  at  659.    And,  
most relevant here, prejudice is presumed “when counsel’s
constitutionally  deficient  performance  deprives  a  defend-
ant  of  an  appeal  that  he  otherwise  would  have  taken.” 
Flores-Ortega, 528  U. S., at 484.   We hold today that this 
final  presumption  applies  even  when  the  defendant  has 
signed an appeal waiver. 

B 
It  is  helpful,  in  analyzing  Garza’s  case,  to  first  address 
two  procedural  devices  on  which  the  case  hinges:  appeal
waivers and notices of appeal. 

1 
We  begin  with  the  term  “appeal  waivers.”  While  the 
term  is  useful  shorthand  for  clauses  like  those  in  Garza’s 
plea agreements, it can misleadingly suggest a monolithic 
end  to  all  appellate  rights.4    In  fact,  however,  no  appeal 
waiver serves as an absolute bar to all appellate claims.  

As courts widely agree, “[a] valid and enforceable appeal
waiver  . . .  only  precludes  challenges  that  fall  within  its 
scope.”  United  States  v.  Hardman,  778  F. 3d  896,  899 
(CA11 2014); see also ibid., n. 2 (collecting cases from the 

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4 While  this  Court  has  never recognized  a  “constitutional  right  to  an 
appeal,” it has “held that if an appeal is open to those who can pay for 
it,  an  appeal  must  be  provided  for  an  indigent.”    Jones  v.  Barnes,  463 
U. S.  745,  751  (1983);  see  also  Douglas  v.  California,  372  U. S.  353 
(1963);  Griffin  v.  Illinois,  351  U. S.  12,  18  (1956)  (plurality  opinion).
Today, criminal defendants in nearly all  States have a  right to appeal 
either by statute or by court rule.  See generally Robertson, The Right 
To  Appeal,  91  N. C.  L. Rev.  1219,  1222,  and  n. 8  (2013).    Criminal 
defendants  in  federal  court  have  appellate  rights  under  18  U. S. C. 
§3742(a) and 28 U. S. C. §1291.