Court Opinion

ID: 9700111
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 21:11:03.887781+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:21:04.604457
License: Public Domain

SHIRLEY S. ABRAHAMSON, J.
{concurring). I agree that Sanchez's conviction should be affirmed. Regardless of who bears the burden of proving prejudice in an ineffective assistance of counsel claim, evidence of guilt described by the court of appeals as "overwhelmingly probative" demonstrates that Sanchez was not prejudiced by the State's violation of his right to remain silent.
*240I nevertheless write separately because I conclude that under Article I, § 7 of the Wisconsin constitution1 and this court's longstanding harmless error analysis, see, e.g., State v. Dyess, 124 Wis. 2d 525, 370 N.W.2d 222 (1985), the State should have been required to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the errors caused by Sanchez's trial counsel did not prejudice his defense.2
*241As the majority opinion correctly states, this court's harmless error analysis places upon the beneficiary of the error the burden of demonstrating that the error is harmless. To satisfy this burden, the beneficiary of an error must "establish that there is no reasonable possibility that the error contributed to the conviction." Dyess, 124 Wis. 2d at 543. Conversely, under the test fashioned by the United States Supreme Court in Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, reh'g denied, 467 U.S. 1267 (1984), and adopted by this court today, it is the defendant alleging ineffective assistance of counsel who "must show ... a reasonable probability that, but for counsel's unprofessional errors, the result of the proceeding would have been different." Strickland, 466 U.S. at 694.3
The discrepancy between how the burden of proof is assigned when a defendant alleges error as opposed to ineffective assistance of counsel presents a paradox. If, on appeal, a defendant alleges error, the state must prove that the defendant was not prejudiced thereby and that the error was therefore harmless. But if a defendant alleges ineffective assistance of counsel because trial counsel failed to object to the same error, *242the rule we announce today requires that defendant to prove that the error was prejudicial and therefore harmful.
Hence if the error which allegedly harmed Sanchez had been framed in terms of a violation of the defendant's right to remain silent rather than as a violation of his right to the effective assistance of counsel, the State would have been compelled to demonstrate that this error was harmless.4
*243The majority opinion suggests that the defendant rather than the state should be required to prove that a defendant has been prejudiced by ineffective counsel because ordinarily a defendant will possess much of the information necessary to establish such a claim. Majority op. at 232. While I agree that in many cases knowledge concerning whether counsel has been ineffective will initially be more accessible to the defendant, I disagree with the majority's conclusion that the defendant must therefore shoulder the burden of persuasion to demonstrate prejudice.
In shifting the burden of proving prejudice to the defendant, the majority opinion emphasizes the "difficulties and complexities" the state would encounter in proving that a defendant was not prejudiced by defense counsel's serious error, and downplays the difficulty of the defendant's initial burden to prove that counsel was indeed ineffective. Yet, as the court has indicated, a defendant cannot demonstrate that counsel has been ineffective by merely alleging error; even if a defendant's counsel makes several errors which competent counsel would have avoided, "[t]he fact that [counsel] should have acted differently... does not establish that his assistance was ineffective." State v. Fencl, 109 Wis. 2d 224, 228, 325 N.W.2d 703 (1982) (citing State v. Rock, 92 Wis. 2d 554, 560, 285 N.W.2d 739 (1979)); see also Strickland, 466 U.S. at 687-690 (to meet the ineffective assistance of counsel prong "requires showing that counsel made errors so serious that counsel was not functioning as the 'counsel' guaranteed the defendant by the Sixth Amendment").5
*244Thus in the hypothetical alibi case posed by the majority opinion, Majority op. at 233-34, the state would not be required to prove prejudice until the defendant had first presented sufficient evidence to demonstrate that trial counsel's failure to produce a particular witness represented an error "so serious" as to render trial counsel’s performance ineffective.6
*245Evidence sufficient to meet this initial burden — which would presumably require the defendant to come forward with the alibi witness and explain why that witness's testimony was integral to the defendant's case — would eliminate any "difficulties and complexities" the state might have otherwise faced in meeting its own, subsequent burden of demonstrating that the defendant was not prejudiced by counsel's failure to produce this witness.
For the reasons set forth, I concur.

 This court's interpretation of the right to counsel inscribed in Article I, § 7 has long differed from the interpretation which the U.S. Supreme Court has given to the Sixth Amendment right to counsel. As early as 1859, more than one hundred years before the United States Supreme Court announced a similar principle in federal constitutional law, Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U.S. 335 (1963), the Wisconsin Supreme Court held that indigent defendants were entitled to counsel furnished at the government's expense. Carpenter v. Dane Co., 9 Wis. 249 [*274] (1859). Interpreting Article I, § 7 of the Wisconsin constitution, Justice Cole reasoned that it would be "mockery to secure to a pauper these solemn constitutional guaranties for a fair and full trial of the matters with which he was charged, and yet to say to him when on trial, that he must employ his own counsel, who could alone render these guaranties of any real permanent value to him." Id. at 251 [*276]. See also State v. Doe, 78 Wis. 2d 161, 171-72, 254 N.W.2d 210 (1977) (citing Carpenter in noting that "it is the prerogative of the State of Wisconsin to afford greater protection to the liberties of persons within its boundaries under the Wisconsin Constitution than is mandated by the United States Supreme Court under the Fourteenth Amendment"); Sparkman v. State, 27 Wis. 2d 92, 98, 133 N.W.2d 776 (1965) (noting that "Wisconsin from early statehood ... has not depended upon or awaited the increasing scope of the commands of the Fourteenth amendment" in interpreting the Wisconsin constitution's right to counsel provision).

 The court of appeals concluded that the State violated Sanchez's Fifth Amendment right to remain silent and that his counsel's failure to object rendered his counsel's performance *241ineffective. State v. Sanchez, No. 94-0208-CR, unpublished slip op. at 4-5 (Wis. Ct. App. Feb. 22, 1995). The majority opinion concludes that even assuming arguendo that his counsel performed ineffectively, Sanchez failed to demonstrate that he was prejudiced by his counsel's performance. Majority op. at 236.

 For criticism of the Strickland decision, see Richard L. Gabriel, The Strickland Standard for Claims of Ineffective Assistance of Counsel: Emasculating the Sixth Amendment in the Guise of Due Process, 134 U. Pa. L. Rev. 1259 (1986); William S. Geimer, A Decade of Strickland's Tin Horn: Doctrinal and Practical Undermining of the Right to Counsel, 4 Wm. & Mary Bill Rts. J. 91 (1995).

 See State v. Fencl, 109 Wis. 2d 224, 232-240, 325 N.W.2d 703 (1982) (defendant's trial counsel did not object to state's references at trial to the defendant's prearrest silence; because the court addressed the claim raised on appeal under the Fifth rather than the Sixth Amendment, the state was required to carry the burden of persuasion demonstrating that the error was harmless); Rudolph v. State, 78 Wis. 2d 435, 441-43, 254 N.W.2d 471 (1977), cert. denied, 435 U.S. 944 (state's reference at trial to defendant's election to remain silent raised as Fifth Amendment constitutional error rather than as ineffective assistance of counsel; defense counsel had objected to reference at trial but had failed to request an admonitory instruction and failed to renew objection on post-conviction motion; the state was required to carry the burden of persuasion demonstrating that the error was harmless); Odell v. State, 90 Wis. 2d 149, 155-57, 279 N.W.2d 706 (1979) (although defense counsel had failed to object, state's reference at trial to defendant's election to remain silent raised and addressed on appeal as Fifth Amendment constitutional error rather than as ineffective assistance of counsel; court applied harmless error analysis, placing the burden of persuasion to demonstrate that the error was harmless on state); State v. Kircher, 189 Wis. 2d 392, 404-05, 525 N.W.2d 788 (Ct. App. 1994) (although defense counsel failed to object, state’s reference at trial to defendant's election to remain silent raised and addressed on appeal as Fifth Amendment constitutional error rather than as ineffective assistance of counsel; state was required to prove that the error was harmless).

 Ordinarily, then, errors "so serious" as to establish an ineffective assistance of counsel claim will either be of constitutional magnitude or will be plain errors. A plain error is an error so plain that it affects an appellant's substantial rights. State v. *244Sonnenberg, 117, Wis. 2d 159, 176-77, 344 N.W.2d 95, 99 (1984). While appellate courts find plain error "impossible to define," "they know it when they see it." Id. at 177 (citation omitted). The court will, at its discretion, address both plain and constitutional errors raised for the first time on appeal. Id. at 176-77; Wis. Stat. § 901.03(4) (1993-94) (plain error); In Interest of Baby Girl K., 113 Wis. 2d 429, 448, 335 N.W.2d 846 (1983); State v. Johnson, 60 Wis. 2d 334, 343, 210 N.W.2d 735 (1973) (constitutional error).
Hence, when defense counsel makes timely objection to any errors, the state must prove that those errors were harmless. Similarly, when defense counsel fails to object to such errors but the court nevertheless decides to take them up on appeal, the state must prove that those errors were harmless. When, conversely, defense counsel fails to object to such errors and an appellate court declines to consider them, the rule the court announces today for ineffective assistance of counsel claims requires the defendant to prove that those errors were prejudicial. This rule rewards defendants whose counsel are competent and object while frequently increasing the burden of proof for those whose counsel are incompetent, even when the same error is at issue in both situations.

 When a defendant satisfies the burden of proving that trial counsel has made an error of this magnitude, the defendant has ipso facto raised the possibility that he has been prejudiced. See Briones v. State, 848 P.2d 966, 976-77 (Haw. 1993) (rejecting the Strickland test; a defendant who has established that trial counsel was ineffective raises the prospect that he or she has been prejudiced and need not show actual prejudice).