Court Opinion

ID: 9655090
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 18:59:58.334774+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:13:16.058339
License: Public Domain

HEFFERNAN, J.
(concurring). Although I am dissatisfied with the majority’s statement of the test of lawyer deficiency, I concur in the mandate of the court. Even in the absence of a standard that can serve as a guideline for future cases, I see no egregious deficiency in representation here that had the likelihood or the reality of prejudicing the defendant. Perhaps, to a degree, the majority’s view of the question of ineffectiveness of counsel is similar to Justice Stewart’s statement in respect to obscenity, when he said that, although he was not sure he could define it, “I know it when I see it.” Jacobellis v. Ohio, 378 U.S. 184, 197 (1964).
I share Justice Abrahamson’s concern that this court attempt a reasoned formulation of a standard. Whether a conclusively definitive standard can in fact be achieved *241is perhaps doubtful, but we cannot be satisfied with the lack of a formulation that appears to satisfy the majority.
My problem in this case, however, is not solely with the majority’s formulation or nonformulation of a standard. Rather, I am concerned with the methodology utilized in arriving at the ultimate conclusion that counsel is not effective and, particularly, with the lack of careful explication of how the determination that prejudice has occurred is to be applied in arriving at the final result.
The majority implies that there are degrees of effectiveness and that, if counsel is not fully effective, then the question of prejudice is raised. Representation of a criminal defendant is either effective or ineffective. If it is ineffective, reversal is required. There cannot be a determination that ineffective counsel was harmless, because the determination of ineffectiveness impliedly incorporates the finding of an adverse impact resulting from counsel’s deficiency. The deficiency or failure should be evaluated, initially at least, according to the prudent-lawyer standard of State v. Harper, 57 Wis. 2d 543, 205 N.W.2d 1 (1973). If the failure could have had no adverse effect on the defendant, the representation would not have been any more effective had that failure not occurred.
Because the concept of ineffectiveness involves the idea of adverse consequences, it is redundant to consider the question of prejudice after finding that counsel has been found ineffective. It is logically inconsistent to find that ineffective counsel did not harm the defendant.
Unreasonable or even egregiously deficient representation is not necessarily ineffective. Hence, the test used by the majority is incomplete, because it does not apply the test of the likelihood of adverse consequences and does not clearly require a determination of prejudice before labeling conduct as ineffective. The prerequisite *242to finding that counsel is ineffective is (1) inappropriate conduct of an egregious nature, (2) that is likely to result in an adverse result, and (3) in respect to which the state has failed to assume the burden of showing that the conduct was harmless. Only if all of these factors are considered and appropriate conclusions reached can counsel be found to be ineffective.
I recognize that the analysis of this problem presents a morass of philosophical and semantic problems,1 but if, as I believe it must be conceded, a defendant is constitutionally entitled to effective counsel, we should not make a finding of ineffectiveness or unreasonably deficient representation and then explain it away as being nonprejudicial. Rather, the appropriate methodology is to determine whether egregiously deficient conduct of counsel seriously impaired the defense or whether the likelihood that it did was great. Then counsel may be found ineffective and, subject to the state’s rebuttal, a per se rule of reversal is required.
Accordingly, the question of prejudice, applied at the appropriate step in the analysis, is important and necessary. But it is logically incongruent to conclude that ineffective counsel, once found, is not per se prejudicial.
Also, I believe it is clear that, where the defendant demonstrates that the record reveals an egregious deficiency in representation that is likely to adversely affect the result, it is the burden of the state — the party which has reaped the benefit from the error — to show that it is not prejudicial.2 Once it is determined that there is a revealed deficiency in representation likely to cause harm, the burden rests upon the government to prove *243absence of harm and to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt. Chapman v. California, 386 U.S. 18 (1967). Hence, it is the duty of the defendant to show lack of competent representation likely to cause harm; and it is the duty of the state to show, if it wishes to avoid the automatic reversal which ensues upon a finding of ineffectiveness, that no harm occurred.
When a finding of ineffective counsel is made, the inquiry is over. No question of prejudice remains to be decided. That question has, or should have, been addressed in determining whether counsel was effective.
Perhaps the majority does, in fact, follow the methodology I suggest, but I believe that this methodology should be set out so that it is clear that prejudice is an essential prerequisite to a conclusion there has not been effective counsel.
I concur in the result.

 See, United States v. Decoster, 624 F.2d 196 (1976).

 We are not here concerned with errors that are ipso facto prejudicial, e.g., where there has been a total denial of counsel or where, because of state action, counsel has been prevented from functioning appropriately. See, Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U.S. 335 (1963).