Court Opinion

ID: 9683999
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 13:42:42.347744+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:17:51.809525
License: Public Domain

On Motion for Rehearing
PER CURIAM.
This cause was submitted to this court at its January 1974 session at Springfield. On May 10, 1974, the principal opinion was adopted without dissent and was thereafter published. On May 21, 1974, defendant filed a timely pro se motion for rehearing stating that he sought a “re-hearing [sic] of the opinion” and requesting appointment of new counsel of record on the ground that his attorney had been appointed Prosecuting Attorney of Crawford County, Missouri, “[a]nd thus must withdraw as counsel of record.” Shortly thereafter, in a lengthy and explicit letter, defendant’s court-appointed counsel advised this court that he had indeed been appointed Prosecuting Attorney of Crawford County, and that he believed his further representation of the defendant would constitute a violation of § 56.360, RSMo 1969, V.A.M.S., and a serious breach of legal ethics as well. On June 13, 1974, we acknowledged receipt of Mr. Lange’s letter, advising him *168that we would regard the motion for rehearing as timely filed and subject to amendment. We further advised Mr. Lange that we would defer action on the motion and take time to consider the law involved.
At this point, two general questions seemed to be presented: a) whether an order refusing to permit counsel to withdraw would require him to commit a positive violation of § 56.360, or at least constitute a breach of ethics which might later be raised in a post-conviction proceeding, and b) whether or not the defendant was, at this stage of the proceeding, entitled to court-appointed counsel either as a matter of local law or of federal constitutional right.
The first question — as presented- — - seemed beyond our competence to decide. We therefore requested the advice of the General Chairman of the Bar Committees, appointed pursuant to Rule 5.01, V.A.M.R., and the Advisory Committee. The General Chairman .gave" as his informal opinion that counsel’s further representation of the defendant might well appear, and probably would be, improper. Mr. Lange was thereupon given permission by this court to withdraw as counsel of record.
The more fundamental question remained : Was the defendant entitled to appointed counsel solely for the purpose of pursuing his motion for rehearing? Neither the applicable rule, Rule 29.01(c), V.A.M.R., nor the case law, e. g., Franklin v. State, 501 S.W.2d 166, 173[7] (Mo.1973), quite reached that question. The rulings from the federal courts appeared to be in conflict, but the latest ruling, Moffitt v. Ross, 483 F.2d 650 (4th Cir. 1973), indicated that the defendant had a federal constitutional right to the assistance of appointed counsel in seeking a rehearing here and in applying to the Supreme Court of Missouri for discretionary review. We noted that certiorari had been granted in the Moffitt case, 414 U.S. 1128, 94 S.Ct. 864, 38 L.Ed.2d 752 (1974), and awaited the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States.
In Ross v. Moffitt, 417 U.S. 600, 94 S.Ct. 2437, 41 L.Ed.2d 341 (1974), the Supreme Court of the United States undertook to decide whether Douglas v. California, 372 U.S. 353, 83 S.Ct. 814, 9 L.Ed.2d 811 (1963), which requires appointment of counsel for indigent state defendants on their first appeal as of right, should be extended to require counsel for discretionary state appeals. We undertake no judicial gloss on the court’s decision, but as we read the opinion, it was held that if an indigent defendant has had the assistance of counsel in presenting his claims of error upon his appeal of right in a multi-tiered appellate system such as ours, he has no federal constitutional right to the assistance of counsel in seeking discretionary review in the highest court of the state.
With this decision in mind, we advised the, defendant to apply to the trial court for the appointment of counsel to assist him in seeking a rehearing in this court, since under Rule 29.01(d), V.A.M.R., it is the trial court’s duty to appoint new counsel if appointed counsel is permitted to withdraw upon appeal. The defendant made no new showing of indigency, and the trial court refused to appoint new counsel unless so ordered by this court. Whether such an order should issue must be considered in light of present practice in criminal appeals in this state. We assume, though no such proof appears, that the defendant is still indigent.
One factor to be considered in determining defendant’s right to appointed counsel at this stage of the proceeding is that under our present criminal practice, the indigent criminal defendant, on his appeal of right to the Court of Appeals, receives a review of his claims of error more extensive than that to which he is entitled as a matter of federal constitutional right. An indigent criminal defendant is entitled to a free, full and complete transcript of the trial proceedings even though he appears only to plead guilty. § 485.100, RSMo Supp.1971, as supplemented by order of the Supreme Court of Missouri dated February *16922, 1972. Moreover, in this state, criminal appeals may not be disposed of in the manner outlined in Anders v. California, 386 U.S. 738, 87 S.Ct. 1396, 18 L.Ed.2d 493 (1967), although a very hasty search indicates the Anders procedure is now routinely used to dispose of wholly groundless appeals in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, in Florida, Illinois, Nebraska, South Carolina, Texas and Utah.1 In State v. Gates, 466 S.W.2d 681 (Mo.1971), our Supreme Court felt obliged to reject the Anders procedure, and instead incorporated into the case law the requirement suggested by the commentary upon A.B.A. Standards, The Prosecution Function and The Defense Function, § 8.3(b), pp. 295-302 (Approved Draft 1971). Counsel for the indigent criminal defendant is therefore required upon the defendant’s appeal of right to present “all there is to present” including such points as the defendant desires to have raised, provided counsel can do so without compromising professional standards. State v. Gates, supra, 466 S.W.2d at 683. Thus, and to reiterate, in Missouri an indigent criminal defendant receives a meticulous consideration of his claims of error upon his appeal of right, as a matter of local requirement.
The determinative consideration, however, is the fact that under our .present criminal appellate practice a motion for rehearing — in reality — serves no function other than to exhaust the defendant’s remedies in the Court of Appeals so he may seek discretionary review of his case in the Supreme Court of Missouri. True, a motion for rehearing may serve much the same purpose in the appellate court as does the modern motion for new trial in the trial court. When a motion for rehearing is filed, an appellate court may modify its opinion and deny the motion, but if a motion for a complete rehearing is granted, the appeal stands as if it had never been heard and the opinion filed becomes a nullity as if it had never been written. In re McMenamy’s Guardianship, 307 Mo. 98, 116-117, 270 S.W. 662, 667[6] (banc 1925); In re Thomasson’s Estate, 192 S.W.2d 867, 870[4-6] (Mo.1946). Upon rehearing, an appellate court may adopt its former opinion, modify or expand its former opinion, or adopt a new and different opinion, Frohman v. Lowenstein, 303 Mo. 339, 348, 260 S.W. 460, 461[1] (banc 1924), but the court may not reverse its former holding without actual resubmission and rehearing of the appeal. Granite Bituminous Paving Co. v. Park View Realty and Improvement Co., 270 Mo. 698, 700-703, 196 S.W. 1142, 1143-1144 (banc 1917). Thus on a criminal appeal a motion for rehearing may be used, in the language of the Ross case, as a “sword to upset [a] prior determination of guilt”, but in practice it serves no such function. Statistical inquiry among the three districts of the Court of Appeals reveals that during the period roughly corresponding with the last reporting period, July 1, 1973, to June 30, 1974, some 298 criminal opinions were filed. Motions for rehearing or alternative motions for rehearing or for transfer to the Supreme Court were filed in 71 of these 298 cases. Only two such motions were sustained. It is therefore clear, at least to us, that on a criminal appeal a motion for rehearing is merely an exhaustion device used to seek discretionary review in the highest court of this state.
We have neither the inclination nor the authority to suggest the limit to an indigent criminal defendant’s right to counsel; we do not undertake to do so here. Nevertheless we conclude and hold that in this case the defendant has had an adequate opportunity to present his claims of error fairly within the adversarial system and *170that in the present state of the law, the trial court was not obliged to appoint new counsel to assist the defendant in pursuing his motion for rehearing in this court. The motion to require the appointment of new counsel is denied; the motion for rehearing is denied.
All of the Judges concur.

. See, as examples, United States v. Tappen, 488 F.2d 142 (5th Cir. 1973); State v. Davis, 290 So.2d 30 (Fla.1974); People v. Wright, 3 Ill.App.3d 262, 278 N.E.2d 175 (1971); State v. Kellogg, 189 Neb. 692, 204 N.W.2d 567 (1973); Wells v. Leeke, 203 S.E.2d 428 (S.C.1974) (a postconviction proceeding); Jackson v. State, 485 S.W.2d 553 (Tex.Crim.App.1972); State v. Romano, 29 Utah 2d 237, 507 P.2d 1025 (1973).