Court Opinion

ID: 9429343
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:26:28.870104+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:19.072010
License: Public Domain

Justice Brennan,
with whom Justice Marshall joins, dissenting.
The Sixth Amendment provides that “[i]n all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right ... to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence” (emphasis added). I find myself in fundamental disagreement with the Court over what a right to “the assistance of counsel” means. The import of words like “assistance” and “counsel” seems inconsistent with a regime under which counsel appointed by the State to represent a criminal defendant can refuse to raise issues with arguable merit on appeal when his client, after hearing his assessment of the case and his advice, has di*756rected him to raise them. I would remand for a determination whether respondent did in fact insist that his lawyer brief the issues that the Court of Appeals found were not frivolous.
It is clear that respondent had a right to the assistance of counsel in connection with his appeal. “As we have held again and again, an indigent defendant is entitled to the appointment of counsel to assist him on his first appeal. . . .” Entsminger v. Iowa, 386 U. S. 748, 751 (1967) (citations omitted).1 In recognizing the right to counsel on appeal, we *757have expressly relied not only on the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause, which in this context prohibits disadvantaging indigent defendants in comparison to those who can afford to hire counsel themselves, but also on its Due Process Clause and its incorporation of Sixth Amendment standards. See Anders v. California, 386 U. S. 738, 744 (1967); Griffin v. Illinois, 351 U. S. 12, 17 (1956); cf. Johnson v. United States, 352 U. S. 565, 566 (1957); Johnson v. Zerbst, 304 U. S. 458, 462-463 (1938). The two theories converge in this case also. Cf. Bearden v. Georgia, 461 U. S. 660, 665 (1983). A State may not incarcerate a person, whether he is indigent or not, if he has not had (or waived) the assistance of counsel at all stages of the criminal process at which his substantial rights may be affected. Argersinger v. Hamlin, 407 U. S. 25 (1972); Mempa v. Rhay, 389 U. S. 128, 134 (1967). In my view, that right to counsel extends to one appeal, provided the defendant decides to take an appeal and the appeal is not frivolous.2
The Constitution does not on its face define the phrase “assistance of counsel,” but surely those words are not empty of content. No one would doubt that counsel must be qualified to practice law in the courts of the State in question,3 or that the representation afforded must meet minimum standards of effectiveness. See Powell v. Alabama, 287 U. S. 45, 71 *758(1932). To satisfy the Constitution, counsel must function as an advocate for the defendant, as opposed to a friend of the court. Anders v. California, supra, at 744; Entsminger v. Iowa, supra, at 751. Admittedly, the question in this case requires us to look beyond those clear guarantees. What is at issue here is the relationship between lawyer and client— who has ultimate authority to decide which nonfrivolous issues should be presented on appeal? I believe the right to “the assistance of counsel” carries with it a right, personal to the defendant, to make that decision, against the advice of counsel if he chooses.
If all the Sixth Amendment protected was the State’s interest in substantial justice, it would not include such a right. However, in Faretta v. California, 422 U. S. 806 (1975), we decisively rejected that view of the Constitution, ably advanced by Justice Blackmun in dissent. Holding that the Sixth Amendment requires that defendants be allowed to represent themselves, we observed:
“It is undeniable that in most criminal prosecutions defendants could better defend with counsel’s guidance than by their own unskilled efforts. But where the defendant will not voluntarily accept representation by counsel, the potential advantage of a lawyer’s training and experience can be realized, if at all, only imperfectly. To force a lawyer on a defendant can only lead him to believe that the law contrives against him. . . . Personal liberties are not rooted in the law of averages. The right to defend is personal. The defendant, and not his lawyer or the State, will bear the personal consequences of a conviction. It is the defendant, therefore, who must be free personally to decide whether in his particular case counsel is to his advantage. And although he may conduct his own defense ultimately to his own detriment, his choice must be honored out of ‘that respect for the individual which is the lifeblood of the law.’ Illinois v. Allen, 397 U. S. 337, 350-351 (Brennan, J., concurring).” Id., at 834.
*759Faretta establishes that the right to counsel is more than a right to have one’s case presented competently and effectively. It is predicated on the view that the function of counsel under the Sixth Amendment is to protect the dignity and autonomy of a person on trial by assisting him in making choices that are his to make, not to make choices for him, although counsel may be better able to decide which tactics will be most effective for the defendant. Anders v. California also reflects that view. Even when appointed counsel believes an appeal has no merit, he must furnish his client a brief covering all arguable grounds for appeal so that the client may “raise any points that he chooses.” 386 U. S., at 744.
The right to counsel as Faretta and Anders conceive it is not an all-or-nothing right, under which a defendant must choose between forgoing the assistance of counsel altogether or relinquishing control over every aspect of his case beyond its most basic structure (i. e., how to plead, whether to present a defense, whether to appeal). A defendant’s interest in his case clearly extends to other matters. Absent exceptional circumstances, he is bound by the tactics used by his counsel at trial and on appeal. Henry v. Mississippi, 379 U. S. 443, 451 (1965). He may want to press the argument that he is innocent, even if other stratagems are more likely to result in the dismissal of charges or in a reduction of punishment. He may want to insist on certain arguments for political reasons. He may want to protect third parties. This is just as true on appeal as at trial, and the proper role of counsel is to assist him in these efforts, insofar as that is possible consistent with the lawyer’s conscience, the law, and his duties to the court.
I find further support for my position in the legal profession’s own conception of its proper role. The American Bar Association has taken the position that
“when, in the estimate of counsel, the decision of the client to take an appeal, or the client’s decision to press a particular contention on appeal, is incorrect[, c]ounsel *760has the professional duty to give to the client fully and forcefully an opinion concerning the case and its probable outcome. Counsel’s role, however, is to advise. The decision is made by the client.” ABA Standards for Criminal Justice 21-3.2, Comment, p. 21-42 (2 ed. 1980) (emphasis added).4
The Court disregards this clear statement of how the profession defines the “assistance of counsel” at the appellate stage of a criminal defense by referring to standards governing the allocation of authority between attorney and client at trial. See ante, at 753, n. 6; ABA Standards for Criminal Justice 4-5.2 (2 ed. 1980).5 In the course of a trial, however, decisions must often be made in a matter of hours, if not minutes or seconds. From the standpoint of effective administration of justice, the need to confer decisive authority on the attorney is paramount with regard to the hundreds of decisions that must be made quickly in the course of a trial. Decisions regarding which issues to press on appeal, in contrast, can and should be made more deliberately, in the course of deciding whether to appeal at all.
*761The Court’s opinion seems to rest entirely on two propositions. First, the Court observes that we have not yet decided this case. This is true in the sense that there is no square holding on point, but as I have explained supra, at 758-759, Anders and Faretta describe the right to counsel in terms inconsistent with today’s holding. Moreover, the mere fact that a constitutional question is open is no argument for deciding it one way or the other. Second, the Court argues that good appellate advocacy demands selectivity among arguments. That is certainly true — the Court’s advice is good. It ought to be taken to heart by every lawyer called upon to argue an appeal in this or any other court, and by his client. It should take little or no persuasion to get a wise client to understand that, if staying out of prison is what he values most, he should encourage his lawyer to raise only his two or three best arguments on appeal, and he should defer to his lawyer’s advice as to which are the best arguments. The Constitution, however, does not require clients to be wise, and other policies should be weighed in the balance as well.
It is no secret that indigent clients often mistrust the lawyers appointed to represent them. See generally Burt, Conflict and Trust Between Attorney and Client, 69 Geo. L. J. 1015 (1981); Skolnick, Social Control in the Adversary System, 11 J. Conflict Res. 52 (1967). There are many reasons for this, some perhaps unavoidable even under perfect conditions — differences in education, disposition, and socioeconomic class — and some that should (but may not always) be zealously avoided. A lawyer and his client do not always have the same interests. Even with paying clients, a lawyer may have a strong interest in having judges and prosecutors think well of him, and, if he is working for a flat fee — a common arrangement for criminal defense attorneys — or if his fees for court appointments are lower than he would receive for other work, he has an obvious financial incentive to conclude cases on his criminal docket swiftly. Good lawyers *762undoubtedly recognize these temptations and resist them, and they endeavor to convince their clients that they will. It would be naive, however, to suggest that they always succeed in either task. A constitutional rule that encourages lawyers to disregard their clients’ wishes without compelling need can only exacerbate the clients’ suspicion of their lawyers. As in Faretta, to force a lawyer’s decisions on a defendant “can only lead him to believe that the law contrives against him.” See 422 U. S., at 834. In the end, what the Court hopes to gain in effectiveness of appellate representation by the rule it imposes today may well be lost to decreased effectiveness in other areas of representation.
The Court’s opinion also seems to overstate somewhat the lawyer’s role in an appeal. While excellent presentation of issues, especially at the briefing stage, certainly serves the client’s best interests, I do not share the Court’s implicit pessimism about appellate judges’ ability to recognize a meritorious argument, even if it is made less elegantly or in fewer pages than the lawyer would have liked, and even if less meritorious arguments accompany it. If the quality of justice in this country really depended on nice gradations in lawyers’ rhetorical skills, we could no longer call it “justice.” Especially at the appellate level, I believe that for the most part good claims will be vindicated and bad claims rejected, with truly skillful advocacy making a difference only in a handful of cases.6 In most of such cases — in most cases generally— clients ultimately will do the wise thing and take their lawyers’ advice. I am not willing to risk deepening the mistrust *763between clients and lawyers in all cases to ensure optimal presentation for that fraction of a handful in which presentation might really affect the result reached by the court of appeals.
Finally, today’s ruling denigrates the values of individual autonomy and dignity central to many constitutional rights, especially those Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights that come into play in the criminal process. Certainly a person’s life changes when he is charged with a crime and brought to trial. He must, if he harbors any hope of success, defend himself on terms — often technical and hard to understand — that are the State’s, not his own. As a practical matter, the assistance of counsel is necessary to that defense. See Johnson v. Zerbst, 304 U. S., at 463. Yet, until his conviction becomes final and he has had an opportunity to appeal, any restrictions on individual autonomy and dignity should be limited to the minimum necessary to vindicate the State’s interest in a speedy, effective prosecution. The role of the defense lawyer should be above all to function as the instrument and defender of the client’s autonomy and dignity in all phases of the criminal process.
As Justice Black wrote in Von Moltke v. Gillies, 332 U. S. 708, 725-726 (1948):
“. . . The right to counsel guaranteed by the Constitution contemplates the services of an attorney devoted solely to the interests of his client. Glasser v. United States, 315 U. S. 60, 70. . . .
“. . . Undivided allegiance and faithful, devoted service to a client are prized traditions of the American lawyer. It is this kind of service for which the Sixth Amendment makes provision. And nowhere is this service deemed more honorable than in case of appointment to represent an accused too poor to hire a lawyer, even though the accused may be a member of an unpopular or hated group, or may be charged with an offense which is peculiarly abhorrent” (footnote omitted).
*764The Court subtly but unmistakably adopts a different conception of the defense lawyer’s role — he need do nothing beyond what the State, not his client, considers most important. In many ways, having a lawyer becomes one of the many indignities visited upon someone who has the ill fortune to run afoul of the criminal justice system.
I cannot accept the notion that lawyers are one of the punishments a person receives merely for being accused of a crime. Clients, if they wish, are capable of making informed judgments about which issues to appeal, and when they exercise that prerogative their choices should be respected unless they would require lawyers to violate their consciences, the law, or their duties to the court. On the other hand, I would not presume lightly that, in a particular case, a defendant has disregarded his lawyer’s obviously sound advice. Cf. Faretta v. California, 422 U. S., at 835-836 (standards for waiver of right to counsel). The Court of Appeals, in reversing the District Court, did not address the factual question whether respondent, having been advised by his lawyer that it would not be wise to appeal on all the issues respondent had suggested, actually insisted in a timely fashion that his lawyer brief the nonfrivolous issues identified by the Court of Appeals. Cf. ante, at 750-751, n. 4. If he did not, or if he was content with filing his pro se brief, then there would be no deprivation of the right to the assistance of counsel. I would remand for a hearing on this question.

 The Court surprisingly announces that “[t]here is, of course, no constitutional right to an appeal.” Ante, at 751. That statement, besides being unnecessary to its decision, is quite arguably wrong. In Griffin v. Illinois, 351 U. S. 12 (1956), the fifth member of the majority, Justice Frankfurter, expressed doubt that there was a constitutional right to an appeal:
“[Njeither the unfolding content of ‘due process’ nor the particularized safeguards of the Bill of Rights disregard procedural ways that reflect a national historic policy. It is significant that no appeals from convictions in the federal courts were afforded (with roundabout exceptions negligible for present purposes) for nearly a hundred years; and, despite the civilized standards of criminal justice in modern England, there was no appeal from convictions (again, with exceptions not now pertinent) until 1907. Thus, it is now settled that due process of law does not require a State to afford review of criminal judgments.” Id., at 20-21.
If the question were to come before us in a proper case, I have little doubt that the passage of nearly 30 years since Griffin and some 90 years since McKane v. Durston, 153 U. S. 684 (1894), upon which Justice Frankfurter relied, would lead us to reassess the significance of the factors upon which Justice Frankfurter based his conclusion. I also have little doubt that we would decide that a State must afford at least some opportunity for review of convictions, whether through the familiar mechanism of appeal or through some form of collateral proceeding. There are few, if any, situations in our system of justice in which a single judge is given unreviewable discretion over matters concerning a person’s liberty or property, and the reversal rate of criminal convictions on mandatory appeals in the state courts, while not overwhelming, is certainly high enough to suggest that depriving defendants of their right to appeal would expose them to an unacceptable risk of erroneous conviction. See Kagan, Cartwright, Friedman, & Wheeler, The Evolution of State Supreme Courts, 76 Mich. L. *757Rev. 961, 994 (1978); Project, 33 Stan. L. Rev. 951, 957, 962-964 (1981). Of course, a case presenting this question is unlikely to arise, for the very reason that a right of appeal is now universal for all significant criminal convictions.

 Both indigents and those who can afford lawyers have this right. However, with regard to issues involving the allocation of authority between lawyer and client, courts may well take account of paying clients’ ability to specify at the outset of their relationship with their attorneys what degree of control they wish to exercise, and to avoid attorneys unwilling to accept client direction.

 Of course, a State may also allow properly supervised law students to represent indigent defendants. See Argersinger v. Hamlin, 407 U. S. 25, 40-41 (1972) (Brennan, J., concurring).

 Cf. ABA Model Code of Professional Responsibility EC 7-7 (1980) (“the authority to make decisions is exclusively that of the client” except for decisions “not affecting the merits of the cause or substantially prejudicing the rights of a client”); id., EC 7-8 (“the lawyer should always remember that the decision whether to forego legally available objectives or methods because of non-legal factors is ultimately for the client”).

 See also ABA Commission on Professional Standards, Model Rules of Professional Conduct, Rule 1.2(a) (Final Draft 1982). Rule 1.2(a) requires that “[a] lawyer shall abide by a client’s decisions concerning the objectives of representation [if they are not illegal or unethical, or if, despite the fact that he considers them ‘repugnant or imprudent,’ the lawyer cannot withdraw without prejudicing the client], and shall consult with the client as to the means by which they are to be pursued.” It is worth noting, however, that the commentary to Rule 1.2 discloses that its drafters’ principal concern was the relationship between insurance company lawyers and insureds they represent, and that Rule 1.2 is intended to provide a basis for disciplinary action as well as general ethical guidance.

 I do not mean to suggest that this “handful” of cases is not important— it may well include many cases that shape the law. Furthermore, the relative skill of lawyers certainly makes a difference at the trial and pretrial stages, when a lawyer’s strategy and ability to persuade may do his client a great deal of good in almost every case, and when his failure to investigate facts or to present them properly may result in their being excluded altogether from the legal system’s official conception of what the “case” actually involves.