Court Opinion

ID: 9468655
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 02:20:08.231617+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:40:58.604227
License: Public Domain

MESKILL, Circuit Judge
(dissenting):
The majority relies principally on Anders v. California, 386 U.S. 738, 87 S.Ct. 1396, 18 L.Ed.2d 493 (1967), to find that petitioner David Barnes was deprived of the effective assistance of counsel on his state appeal. Because I do not agree that Anders supports this result, I dissent.1
In Anders, the petitioner sought to appeal his conviction for possession of marijuana with the aid of court-appointed counsel. After studying the trial record, appointed counsel informed the appellate court by letter that he believed the appeal to be merit-less but that the petitioner nevertheless wished to file a pro se brief. The court refused the petitioner’s request for appointment of new counsel, considered the appeal on the basis of the petitioner’s pro se brief and the state’s answering brief and unanimously affirmed the conviction. Anders then filed an application for a writ of habe-as corpus in the state District Court of Appeal, alleging that he had been denied his right to counsel on appeal. That court denied his application. The California Supreme Court then denied a similar application.
The United States Supreme Court granted certiorari and reversed the decision of the California Supreme Court. The Court condemned the representation provided by Anders’ appellate counsel, stating that he had acted as amicus curiae rather than advocate and ruling that such representation *437had deprived the defendant “that full consideration and resolution” of his appeal compelled by “[t]he constitutional requirement of substantial equality and fair process . . ..” 386 U.S. at 742-44, 87 S.Ct. at 1399-1400.
I agree with the majority that even after Anders, an attorney who finds his client’s appeal wholly frivolous may so advise the court and request permission to withdraw. Maj. Op. at 433. Similarly, I agree that where a client seeks to raise both frivolous and nonfrivolous issues on appeal, the attorney may properly assert only the colorable claims. Id. Nevertheless, the majority finds that Anders, which merely holds that appointed counsel must argue non-frivolous appeals, requires “by extension” that appellate counsel raise all issues suggested by his client that an appellate court, with the clarifying aid of hindsight, decides are “colorable.” I cannot accept this extension of Anders.
Like other federal cases finding constitutional violations in state appellate proceedings, Anders is based on principles of equality. Although the right to appeal a criminal conviction is not guaranteed by the United States Constitution, the Constitution does require that when a state provides appellate review, it must “assure the indigent defendant an adequate opportunity to present his claims fairly in the context of the State’s appellate process.” Ross v. Mof-fitt, 417 U.S. 600, 616, 94 S.Ct. 2437, 2446, 41 L.Ed.2d 341 (1974). See Douglas v. California, 372 U.S. 353, 83 S.Ct. 814, 9 L.Ed.2d 811 (1963); Griffin v. Illinois, 351 U.S. 12, 76 S.Ct. 585, 100 L.Ed. 891 (1956). The instant case is unlike Anders, where appellate counsel’s complete refusal to brief and argue claims left the defendant totally without the aid of counsel in pressing his appeal. Here petitioner Barnes complains that his lawyer argued some issues before the appellate court, but declined to argue every nonfrivolous claim that Barnes had requested him to present.
The Anders standard for judging the effectiveness of appellate counsel requires “that [appointed counsel] support his client’s appeal to the best of his ability.” 386 U.S. at 744, 87 S.Ct. at 1400. This Court has recognized that “decisions concerning which legal issues will be urged on appeal are uniquely within the lawyer’s skill and competence, and their resolution is ultimately left to his judgment.” Ennis v. LeFevre, 560 F.2d 1072, 1075 (2d Cir. 1977), cert. denied, 435 U.S. 976, 98 S.Ct. 1625, 56 L.Ed.2d 70 (1978). A decision not to raise some colorable claim on appeal may be an intelligent and effective tactical choice. Thus, concurring in Ennis, Judge Newman commented as follows on appellate counsel’s decision not to press a claim urged by the defendant that improper identification evidence was used against him:
By no stretch of the imagination was petitioner’s appellate counsel ineffective in the Sixth Amendment sense. On the contrary, he was most effective. From the possible issues to be raised on appeal, he focused on an important one with the likelihood of success and did not risk obscuring its worth in a welter of trivia... . I am entirely satisfied that while a nonfrivolous challenge could have been made, petitioner’s appellate counsel cannot be faulted for considering the probability of success too slight to merit inclusion in the initial appeal.
560 F.2d at 1077-78 (Newman, J., concurring). I agree with Judge Newman that in exercising the professional skill and judgment for which he is retained, an appellate lawyer might well decide to forgo presentation of some issues urged by his client precisely to “support his client’s appeal to the best of his ability[,]” Anders, 386 U.S. at 744, 87 S.Ct. at 1400. The per se rule adopted by the majority is unjustified. Rather, once it is shown that appellate counsel filed a brief which presents claims in a lawyer-like manner, the adequacy of that brief should be judged by the normal standard for effective assistance of counsel.
High v. Rhay, 519 F.2d 109 (9th Cir. 1975), relied upon heavily by the majority, is consistent with this approach. While the appellate lawyer in High did file a brief, the court’s opinion makes clear that the brief *438was so inadequate that the defendant was effectively denied legal representation altogether:
On January 17, 1972, Munro [(appellate counsel)] filed a four-page “Brief of Appellant,” .... In this brief counsel did not make even a minimal statement of the facts which were relevant to the appeal. The single “Assignment of Error” was that the trial court erred in finding the defendant guilty. In a three-sentence, eighty-five-word section entitled “Argument of Counsel,” the court was simply invited to review the transcript to determine whether the evidence established that High was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
. .. The “brief” is worthless. It could not have required more than five minutes to draft. No client in his right mind would pay one cent for such a performance. It is difficult to understand how the Washington Court of Appeals could accept such a brief and thereafter deny High’s motion to relieve Munro and to designate new counsel.
Id. at 111-13. High differs drastically from the case before us. The record in this case indicates that appellate counsel, Michael Melinger, studied the trial record, considered several potential grounds for appeal, communicated his opinions to his client requesting thoughts and suggestions, and filed a skillfully drafted brief which set forth the factual and legal bases of the claims that, in his professional judgment, he considered viable. Unlike High, there is no indication in this record that Barnes’ counsel was merely going through the motions of complying with the letter of Anders.
Even were I to accept the view that the determination of which legal issues to raise on appeal may not always be left entirely to counsel, see Ennis v. LeFevre, 560 F.2d at 1076-77 (Gurfein, J., concurring), I would not agree with the majority’s result in this case. The record does not support the con-elusion that Barnes did more than suggest certain claims to his lawyer and accept his lawyer’s judgment that these claims were not useful. The majority identifies two issues — ineffective assistance of trial counsel and failure of the trial court to give a charge on accessorial liability — as nonfrivo-lous issues that Melinger refused to raise despite his client’s instructions. The only record support cited by Barnes to demonstrate that he insisted that these issues be raised is a letter to him from Melinger on November 9, 1977, which incorporates by reference a letter he sent to Melinger two days earlier. In his letter Melinger stated:
I am currently in the process of framing the points of law in your case that I believe are appealable. . . . Please respond with your reflections and suggestions in reference to them. Once I hear from you, I will prepare the brief.
Later in the letter Melinger discussed issues suggested by Barnes and explained that “[n]ew facts, or new factual arguments . . . are not of assistance to us at this time.” One of the “new factual arguments” listed by Melinger that was “not of assistance” was the claim of ineffectiveness of trial counsel. Melinger then listed seven issues which he thought had potential merit, including the trial court’s failure to give the charge on accessorial liability requested by the defendant.2
It is important to note that the failure of the trial court to charge on accessorial liability appears only in the list of issues suggested by Melinger. There is no indication in the record that Barnes ever suggested, let alone insisted, that Melinger raise this claim. In addition, the record contains no indication that Barnes insisted that Melinger raise an ineffective assistance of counsel claim. The record is devoid of evidence of correspondence between Melinger and Barnes from the time Melinger wrote to Barnes in early November 1977 to the time Melinger filed his brief in late February 1978. Thus, there is no indication that *439Barnes ever responded to Melinger’s request for “reflections and suggestions” on the matters discussed in Melinger’s letter. Barnes never moved to replace Melinger, as might be expected if a conflict existed. In fact, he sought no relief other than permission to file pro se briefs, at least one of which was prepared even before Melinger began to compose his brief. From this record, the inference that Barnes pressed Mel-inger to raise the “nonfrivolous” claims identified by the majority is unreasonable.
As a final point, perhaps obvious from the foregoing, I do not believe that Melinger’s representation fell below the level of “reasonable competence” required of defense counsel in other circuits, let alone the more stringent “farce and mockery” standard employed by this Court. See Maj. Op. at 431 n.4. It is clear from the brief filed by Melinger that he reviewed the entire trial record, identified potentially meritorious issues, and forcefully presented claims of error through citation to pertinent portions of the record and to applicable precedent. While with the benefit of hindsight we may be able to find enough merit in claims rejected by Melinger to label them “nonfrivolous,” it does not follow'that Melinger’s decision not to raise them rendered his performance constitutionally inadequate. Neither has Barnes demonstrated that Melinger’s failure to raise the claims identified by the majority “resulted from neglect or ignorance rather than from informed, professional deliberation.” Marzullo v. Maryland, 561 F.2d 540, 544 (4th Cir. 1977), cert. denied, 435 U.S. 1011, 98 S.Ct. 1885, 56 L.Ed.2d 394 (1978). Certainly it cannot be said that Melinger’s advocacy turned the appellate proceeding into a “farce and mockery of justice[,]” United States v. Wight, 176 F.2d 376, 379 (2d Cir. 1949), cert. denied, 338 U.S. 950, 70 S.Ct. 478, 94 L.Ed. 586 (1950).
I would affirm Judge Nickerson’s decision.

. On the issue of the exhaustion of state remedies, I agree with the majority’s holding that “[h]ere Barnes properly presented his claim to the State’s highest court and that is all that need be done.” Maj. Op. at 432. My dissent is limited to the resolution of the issue of effective assistance of appellate counsel.

. Melinger sent a second letter to Barnes after the oral argument of Barnes’ appeal before the Appellate Division. Melinger informed Barnes that he limited his presentation to the points raised in his own brief.