Court Opinion

ID: 9771921
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 17:00:28.592323+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:31:39.703586
License: Public Domain

FINCH, Presiding Judge
(concurring.)
I concur in the principal opinion but deem it necessary in so doing to discuss further the point raised by defendant that he did not have effective assistance of counsel on appeal.
As indicated in the principal opinion, counsel was appointed to represent defendant on appeal. He prepared and filed a brief on behalf of appellant in this court, as required by our rules, and that brief was considered by this court in writing its opinion on the direct appeal. State v. Wilwording, Mo., 394 S.W.2d 383. Counsel did not orally argue the case after he made inquiry as to whether he was required to *451do so and was advised by this court that this was optional.
The sole point raised in this connection is that counsel did not orally argue the case. No complaint of any kind is made about the written brief or its adequacy, and no complaint is made that it did not fully and adequately present the points asserted by defendant on appeal. Defendant’s contention is based solely on the proposition that under decisions of the United States Supreme Court, particularly in Douglas v. California, 372 U.S. 353, 83 S.Ct. 814, 9 L. Ed.2d 811, counsel for indigent defendants are required to orally argue the case on appeal, and that lack of such argument would constitute a denial to an indigent defendant of a federally guaranteed constitutional right in violation of the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States.
I do not construe the opinion in Douglas to so hold. There is a reference in the opinion to oral argument, but I do not interpret the opinion as saying that oral argument is an absolute prerequisite to fulfillment of such defendant’s constitutional rights. In my judgment, it should not be so construed. Under our rules, no matter may be argued orally which is not covered by the written brief. Hence, no additional questions could be presented which are not already briefed. We do not require oral arguments, but we do require written briefs. The right to argue orally is given and many cases are orally argued. On the other hand, many cases, both civil and criminal, are submitted on briefs. Counsel for the defendant testified at the hearing on his motion under Rule 27.26 that customarily he argued orally on appeal in only about fifty per cent of his cases. In those cases where the defendant-appellant does not argue, the Attorney General does not argue.
In view of the fact that I do not consider that Douglas requires oral argument, I am of the opinion that there is no merit to defendant’s contention that he did not have effective assistance of counsel on his appeal. Even if he were entitled to relief on this ground, it could not have been given by the trial court. Such relief would be obtainable only by motion in this court to vacate our judgment affirming the conviction and to redocket the case for argument. State v. Schaffer, Mo., 383 S.W.2d 698.