Opinion ID: 2358047
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: constitutional right to counsel and appeal.

Text: Although a state is not obliged to provide any appeal at all for persons convicted of criminal offenses, McKane v. Durston, 153 U.S. 684, 688, 14 S.Ct. 913, 915, 38 L.Ed. 867 (1894), if a state does provide for an appeal, it must afford the same rights to indigents as are afforded to other appellants, Griffin v. Illinois, 351 U.S. 12, 17, 76 S.Ct. 585, 590, 100 L.Ed. 891 (1956), including the right to counsel. Douglas v. California, 372 U.S. 353, 356, 83 S.Ct. 814, 816, 9 L.Ed.2d 811 (1963). In Evitts v. Lucey, 469 U.S. 387, 105 S.Ct. 830, 83 L.Ed.2d 821 (1985), the U.S. Supreme Court held that the right to counsel on appeal includes the right to effective assistance of counsel. Id. at 396-97, 105 S.Ct. at 836-37 (affirming issuance of writ of habeas corpus in Kentucky case where the first appeal had been dismissed because of counsel's failure to file statement of appeal as then required by Ky. R.App. P. 1.090). There is also no constitutional requirement that a state provide relief from conviction or sentence by way of collateral attack, United States v. MacCollom, 426 U.S. 317, 323, 96 S.Ct. 2086, 2090-91, 48 L.Ed.2d 666 (1976), though if a state does provide for such relief, it cannot deny a defendant full access to that relief, including the right to appeal, solely because the defendant is indigent. Lane v. Brown, 372 U.S. 477, 484-85, 83 S.Ct. 768, 773, 9 L.Ed.2d 892 (1963) (cost of transcripts to enable appeal from denial of writ of error coram nobis ); Smith v. Bennett, 365 U.S. 708, 712-14, 81 S.Ct. 895, 897-98, 6 L.Ed.2d 39 (1961) (filing fee to file petition for writ of habeas corpus). However, both Douglas and Evitts pointed out that the constitutional right to counsel, and, concomitantly, to effective assistance of counsel, is limited to a first direct appeal from a judgment of conviction and not to discretionary appeals or appeals from collateral attacks. Douglas, 372 U.S. at 356-57, 83 S.Ct. at 816; Evitts, 469 U.S. at 396 n. 7, 105 S.Ct. at 836 n. 7. See also Murray v. Giarratano, 492 U.S. 1, 8, 109 S.Ct. 2765, 2769, 106 L.Ed.2d 1 (1989) (no constitutional right to counsel to pursue collateral attack); Pennsylvania v. Finley, 481 U.S. 551, 555, 107 S.Ct. 1990, 1993, 95 L.Ed.2d 539 (1987) (same); Ross v. Moffitt, 417 U.S. 600, 612, 94 S.Ct. 2437, 2445, 41 L.Ed.2d 341 (1974) (no constitutional right to counsel to pursue discretionary review or writ of certiorari). The articulated rationale behind the distinction between direct first appeals and discretionary appeals or appeals from collateral attacks is that by the time a criminal defendant files a motion for discretionary review or a collateral attack, the defendant will have a transcript or other record of trial proceedings, access to briefs filed in the first appeal, and an opinion of an appellate court explaining the issues raised and decided on the first appeal. These materials, plus whatever submissions the movant provides pro se, will usually provide the court with a basis for ruling on the discretionary motion or collateral attack. Ross, 417 U.S. at 615, 94 S.Ct. at 2446. The concepts of a belated appeal and/or a reinstated appeal arose in response to the U.S. Supreme Court's holdings in Douglas and Evitts . The issue then became how and where relief from a lost appeal due to ineffective assistance of counsel should be granted, i.e., by motion in the court with appellate jurisdiction over the case or by a separate RCr 11.42 motion in the trial court? In Commonwealth v. Wine, 694 S.W.2d 689 (Ky.1985), we undertook a comprehensive analysis of this issue, noting that our previous cases had blown hot and cold on the subject. Id. at 692. Wine's matter-of-right appeal from a judgment of conviction had been dismissed because of appointed counsel's failure to timely file a brief. He then filed an RCr 11.42 motion to vacate the conviction and sentence and to enter a new judgment from which a new appeal might be prosecuted. This procedure had been approved in Hammershoy v. Commonwealth, 398 S.W.2d 883, 884 (Ky.1966), then seemingly disapproved in Cleaver v. Commonwealth, 569 S.W.2d 166, 169 (Ky.1978), and then reapproved in Stahl v. Commonwealth, 613 S.W.2d 617, 618 (Ky.1981). In Wine , we distinguished between a reinstatement of a dismissed appeal that had been timely filed and a belated appeal where a timely notice of appeal had never been filed. Id. at 693-94. Although Wine involved a reinstated appeal, the case essentially held that if the right to a first appeal is lost because of ineffective assistance of counsel, whether because the notice of appeal was not timely filed or because the appeal was dismissed for, e.g., counsel's failure to file a brief, then the appeal must be allowed or reinstated unless the client agreed to, condoned, or contributed to the dismissal. [I]t cannot be doubted that the failure of counsel to file a brief which results in the dismissal of an appeal constitutes ineffective assistance. It is as if no appeal had been taken. In such a case, the appeal must be reinstated unless the conduct has been condoned by, agreed to, or is in some way attributable to the client. Id. at 695 (emphasis added). Wine also held that the appellate court with jurisdiction to hear the appeal was the only court with jurisdiction to grant a reinstated or belated appeal. Id. at 694. In Merrick v. Commonwealth, 132 S.W.3d 220 (Ky.App.2004), the Court of Appeals held that Wine applied to an appeal from a denial of a motion to proceed on direct first appeal in forma pauperis and granted the appellant's pro se motion for a belated appeal from that denial. See CR 73.02(1)(b) (appeal from denial of motion must be filed within ten days); Gabbard v. Lair, 528 S.W.2d 675, 677-78 (Ky. 1975). However, it then digressed into obiter dictum, noting that [i]t has come to the attention of the Court that there appears to be considerable confusion as to the proper scope to be accorded the belated appeal procedure outlined in the opinion of the Kentucky Supreme Court in Commonwealth v. Wine, Ky., 694 S.W.2d 689 (1985), and used Merrick as a vehicle to address whether a belated appeal could be granted from the denial of relief in collateral proceedings, such as RCr 11.42 motions. Merrick, 132 S.W.3d at 220-21. After analyzing Wine and the United States Supreme Court cases discussed supra, it concluded that there could be no belated appeal in such a case. It thus becomes apparent that the bedrock of the belated appeal procedure delineated in Wine is the preservation of an indigent criminal defendant's right to the one appeal guaranteed in the Kentucky Constitution from loss occasioned by ineffective assistance provided by his counsel. In other words, the belated appeal procedure is available only in situations in which an appellant in a criminal case loses the direct appeal of his conviction through the denial of the effective assistance of counsel to which he is entitled as a matter of due process. ... [T]his strict application of the Wine criteria will result in the denial of belated appeal motions in collateral proceedings, such as in the context of motions for RCr 11.42 relief, appeals from probation revocation proceedings, motions to clarify sentence and the like.... Id. at 221.