Court Opinion

ID: 9462964
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 22:54:33.534589+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:37:52.105748
License: Public Domain

HENLEY, Circuit Judge
(concurring):
The right to counsel has historically been an evolving concept, Argersinger v. Hamlin, 407 U.S. 25, 44, 92 S.Ct. 2006, 32 L.Ed.2d 530 (1972). My dissent in Thomas v. Wyrick, 535 F.2d 407 (8th Cir. 1976), called attention to some earlier opinions of this circuit pertinent to development of an acceptable standard by which constitutional adequacy of representation by counsel might be gauged and voiced approval of the standard laid down in Cardarella v. United States, 375 F.2d 222 (8th Cir.), cert. denied, 389 U.S. 882, 88 S.Ct. 129, 19 L.Ed.2d 176 (1967), as amplified in Scalf v. Bennett, 408 F.2d 325 (8th Cir.), cert. denied, 396 U.S. 887, 90 S.Ct. 175, 24 L.Ed.2d 161 (1969).
Today the court has announced that the standard established in our prior decisions is that trial counsel fails to render effective assistance when he does not exercise the customary skills and diligence that a reasonably competent attorney would perform under similar circumstances.
The announced standard is a satisfactory sixth amendment articulation presently finding favor in a number of other circuits. See United States v. DeCoster, 159 U.S. App.D.C. 326, 487 F.2d 1197 (1973); Moore *667v. United States, 432 F.2d 730 (3d Cir. 1970); King v. Beto, 429 F.2d 221 (5th Cir. 1970); Coles v. Peyton, 389 F.2d 224 (4th Cir. 1968); McKenna v. Ellis, 280 F.2d 592 (5th Cir. 1960).
I accept the “reasonable competence” test as the law of this circuit and thus join in the opinion of the court and in the result reached.