Opinion ID: 379476
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Duty to Investigate for a Guilty Client

Text: 180 The dissent states: (T)he suggestion that a client whose lawyer believes him to be guilty deserves less pretrial investigation is simply wrong. An attorney's duty to investigate is not relieved by his own perception of his client's guilt or innocence. 64 This pronouncement is foreign to a lawyer's basic obligation to the court and his profession. When, as here, defense counsel has reasonable grounds for believing his client guilty, that perception must influence his representation of the client. My dissenting colleagues recognize that a lawyer's obligation is only to make reasonable inquiries (dissent n.112), but then they ignore the reasonableness requirement and dissent because of counsel's failure to investigate in support of a fabricated defense. Dissent pages ---, ---, ---, --- of 199 U.S.App.D.C., pages 285, 286, 292, 294 of 624 F.2d. The dissent would brand as ineffective any conduct falling below the minimum standards of competent lawyering, without regard to the client's guilt or innocence. Dissent n.131. While the quality of counsel's performance may not depend on the guilt or innocence of his client, that does not contradict the principle that in determining whether a counsel has breached a duty, the guilt or innocence of his client may affect what he was required to do to satisfy the requirement of a reasonably competent lawyer. 181 Defense counsel are not required to close their eyes to the obvious and search for alibis for defendants who would like assistance in the fabrication of a defense, for that would be a violation of the ethical standards of the legal profession. As Chief Justice Burger wrote for the Court: there is an important limitation on a defendant's right to the assistance of counsel: counsel ethically cannot assist his client in presenting what the attorney has reason to believe is false testimony. United States v. Grayson, 438 U.S. 41, 98 S.Ct. 2610, 57 L.Ed.2d 582, 592 (1978) (emphasis added). Thus, when the dissent states that an attorney cannot be guided by his own perception of his client's guilt or innocence, 65 it contradicts the Supreme Court.