Court Opinion

ID: 9477169
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 06:16:11.616629+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:45:44.206544
License: Public Domain

RIPPLE, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
I concur in the judgment.
The majority is quite correct that, despite the Supreme Court’s reticence on the precise issue,1 this circuit has concluded that the “cause and prejudice” test of Wainwright v. Sykes, 433 U.S. 72, 97 S.Ct. 2497, 53 L.Ed.2d 594 (1977), governs a case such as this one where there has been a complete failure to appeal the judgment of conviction. See United States ex rel. Spurlark v. Wolff, 699 F.2d 354 (7th Cir.1983) (en banc); Norris v. United States, 687 F.2d 899 (7th Cir.1982); see also Williams v. United States, 805 F.2d 1301, 1303-06 (7th Cir.1986).
The Supreme Court has made it clear that “cause” under the Wainwright v. Sykes formula can be based on constitutionally ineffective assistance of counsel (that is, performance which cannot meet the test of Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984)). Indeed, in Murray v. Carrier, 477 U.S. 478, 106 S.Ct. 2639, 2645-46, 91 L.Ed.2d 397 (1986), the Court explicitly noted that ineffective assistance of counsel can constitute “cause” for failure to raise a specific point on appeal. This rule applies even when that failure is a result of “counsel’s deliberate decision.” Smith v. Murray, 477 U.S. 527, 106 S.Ct. 2661, 2667, 91 L.Ed.2d 434 (1986). The fact that this case involves a complete waiver of appellate rights, rather than a failure to appeal a particular matter, hardly justifies a different approach. In such a situation, constitutionally ineffective assistance of counsel remains a basis for “cause” under Wainwright v. Sykes. A guilty plea, like a complete waiver of appeal, involves the definitive waiver of legal rights. Yet, in Tollett v. Henderson, 411 U.S. 258, 266-69, 93 S.Ct. 1602, 1607-09, 36 L.Ed.2d 235 (1973), the Court, in an opinion by now-Chief Justice Rehnquist, explicitly held that constitutionally ineffective assistance of counsel can justify collateral attack of a guilty plea.
Before one can establish “cause” based on the constitutionally ineffective assistance of counsel, there must, of course, be an adequate showing that the ineffective assistance of counsel caused the failure to appeal. See Cartee v. Nix, 803 F.2d 296, 301 (7th Cir.1986), cert. denied, — U.S. —, 107 S.Ct. 1584, 94 L.Ed.2d 774 (1987). When there has been an explicit personal waiver of appellate rights by the defendant, it certainly ought not be presumed that such causality exists. Rather, the defendant must shoulder a substantial burden in demonstrating that such an explicit waiver was caused by the professionally inadequate assistance of counsel.
Here, however, we need not concern ourselves with the question of causality. The application of the “cause and prejudice” test to the facts of this case does not require that we reach that issue. Here, the appellant simply contends that the tactical choices that he made with the advice of his lawyer were the product of ineffective assistance of counsel. In essence, he simply asks that we “second-guess counsel’s assistance,” Strickland, 466 U.S. at 689, 104 S.Ct. at 2065, and, with the benefit of hindsight, determine that his counsel’s tactical decisions were not correct. Strickland explicitly forbids our engaging in such an exercise. Id. This fact alone ends the matter. The appellant has simply failed to establish constitutionally ineffective assistance of counsel and therefore cannot dem*207onstrate “cause” for failing to exercise his appellate rights.

. See Murray v. Carrier, 477 U.S. 478, 106 S.Ct. 2639, 2648, 91 L.Ed.2d 397 (1986).