Court Opinion

ID: 9698891
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 20:03:10.780413+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:20:44.378191
License: Public Domain

NEBEKER, Associate Judge,
concurring:
I concur in Judge Gallagher’s opinion for the court. Surely, if appellate courts must entertain challenges to the performance of appellate counsel, they should do so under the highest threshold and consistent with “the strong policy of repose, that there be an end to litigation....” Ante at 80-81. With the decision in Evitts v. Lucey, 469 U.S. 387, 105 S.Ct. 830, 83 L.Ed.2d 821 (1985), that policy of repose has been shaken. Por example, in High v. United States, No. 79-776, petitioner filed a Petition for Rehearing or Rehearing En Banc to review the denial of a motion to recall and reissue the mandate to start the time in which to move for reduction of sentence. In High, supra, petitioner challenges appellate counsel’s performance four and one-half years after our mandate affirming convictions for second-degree murder and attempted robbery.
The decision in Evitts v. Lucey did not articulate a standard by which appellate counsel’s performance is to be judged. This is understandable for two reasons: first, because a Statement of Appeal had not been filed, the state appeal was not decided on the merits; second, the inadequacy of counsel for failure to file the statement was conceded. 105 S.Ct. at 833. It is quite another matter to be pressed to divine a standard of competence in cases that have been briefed and decided. This case is a good example of the contention that counsel did not put the right gloss on the arguments he advanced. High v. United States, supra, presents another example: inadequacy is asserted based on counsel’s failure to advise the convicted appellant that he had 120 days after our mandate to request sentence reduction. Presumably, the most frequent claim will be that counsel failed to raise a particular issue. It is certain that whatever the issue, it will be bom of hindsight.
Judge Gallagher’s opinion most ably fashions our standard for deciding when our earlier judgment is vulnerable to attack for perceived failures of counsel. An appeal should not be reopened except upon the clearest showing that the result of the appeal would have been other than an af-firmance if handled differently. But the fact remains the decision not to recall the mandate necessitates a later revisit of the record on appeal. In such instances, the facts and issues have been long forgotten. Indeed, the original division or court may not be available and new judges will have to be assigned to the case.
All this suggests strongly that the Evitts v. Lucey holding be limited to cases in which the appeal has not been decided on the merits. Indeed, the majority in Lucey has left this avenue open. It cited approvingly to the Jones v. Barnes, 463 U.S. 745, 103 S.Ct. 3308, 77 L.Ed.2d 987 (1988), holding that counsel need not raise every issue regardless of merit. 105 S.Ct. at 835, 836-37 n. 8. The majority also did not hesitate to leave the so-called “Anders Procedure,” Anders v. California, 386 U.S. 788, 87 S.Ct. 1396,18 L.Ed.2d 493 (1967), as a valid method of deciding appeals on the merits when counsel can find no issue profession*92ally worthy to be raised. Id. at 835, 836, 840.
Accordingly, in the absence of a clear holding to the contrary, it seems to me that the process due on appeal of right has been supplied when the case has been reviewed on the merits and the decision becomes final with our mandate. I would not leave issue identification and the briefing process open after the appeal has been decided on the merits. The burden on the appellate process is too great if months or years later we must reexamine the record to decide if the result could have been different.