Ex Parte Owens
Ex Parte Owens
Concurring Opinion
concurring in which COCHRAN, J., joined.
The Court says, ante at 674, “We fail to perceive any principled reason that our holding in Wilson should not apply equally to an appellant whose attorney files an Anders brief.” I believe there is a principled reason. More important than that reason are the facts that the Wilson/Axel requirement is based on a fallacy, and it doesn’t work.
The principled reason that the holding in Wilson
Of course, if counsel finds his case to be wholly frivolous, after a conscientious examination of it, he should so advise the court and request permission to withdraw. That request must, however, be accompanied by a brief referring to anything in the record that might arguably support the appeal. A copy of counsel’s brief should be furnished the indigent and time allowed him to raise any points that he chooses; the court— not counsel — then proceeds, after a full examination of all the proceedings, to decide whether the case is wholly frivolous. If it so finds it may grant counsel’s request to withdraw and dismiss the appeal insofar as federal requirements are concerned, or proceed to a decision on the merits, if state law so requires. On the other hand, if it finds any of the legal points arguable on their merits (and therefore not frivolous) it must, prior to decision, afford the indigent the assistance of counsel to argue the appeal.3
Whether he was correct or incorrect about there being no arguable grounds, the lawyer who files an Anders brief is leaving the case.
This distinguishes the appellate lawyer from the trial lawyer. Even when the trial has ended in the conviction of the defendant, trial counsel’s duty extends to advising him whether to appeal, as we held in Ex parte Axel:
Precise obligations are laid out in ABA Standards Relating to the Administration of Justice (“Standards”), The Defense Function, Part VIII. After Conviction. After sentencing, the lawyer explains to defendant “meaning and consequences” of the judgment and “his right to appeal.” He expresses his professional opinion as to “meritorious grounds for appeal and as to probable results of an appeal,” as well as its “advantages and disadvantages.” “The decision whether to appeal must be the defendant’s.... ” The lawyer “should take whatever steps are necessary to protect the defendant’s right of appeal.” § 8.2 Appeal, Standards, at 135.4
The appellate counsel who has filed an Anders brief because he has found the appeal to be wholly frivolous could not continue to give advice to the client about whether to seek further review. So there is a principled distinction here, which the Wilson Court ignored when it extended to all appellate counsel the same duty it imposed on all trial counsel in Axel.
The Axel Fallacy.
I find irony in this because, in my view, the Axel Court’s reasoning was clearly wrong when it gave trial counsel, and only trial counsel, the duty to advise the defendant how to perfect an appeal without a lawyer. The reasoning in Axel was, “Informing a defendant of his right to appeal is part and parcel of also further advising him along lines of the Standards, ante, in
No other jurisdiction that I know of has committed the fallacy of giving trial counsel, rather than the trial court, the responsibility to inform a defendant of the right to appeal and the procedures for appealing. Perhaps other jurisdictions considered that having this done by thousands of lawyers in confidential, off-the-record meetings with clients would be less reliable than having it done by the judge in open court, on the record.
It Doesn’t Work.
Not a decision day passes without this court’s granting habeas corpus relief, in the form of out-of-time appeals or petitions for discretionary review, to convicted defendants whose counsel failed to carry out the responsibilities that the Court gave them in Axel and Wilson. We should, and we can, have a better method of informing defendants of their rights and duties in the appellate process.
. Ex parte Wilson, 956 S.W.2d 25 (Tex.Cr.App. 1997).
. “A lawyer shall not bring or defend a proceeding, or assert or controvert an issue therein, unless the lawyer reasonably believes that there is a basis for doing so that it not frivolous.” Tex. Disciplinary R. Prof'l Conduct 3.01.
. Anders v. California, 386 U.S. 738, 744, 87 S.Ct. 1396, 18 L.Ed.2d 493 (1967).
. 757 S.W.2d 369, 373 (Tex.Cr.App. 1988).
. See, e.g., FED. R. CRIM. P. 32(j) (requiring the court to advise the defendant of any right to appeal, and requiring the clerk to immediately prepare and file a notice of appeal on the defendant's behalf if the defendant so requests).
Concurring Opinion
concurring in which JOHNSON and KEASLER, JJ„ joined.
In Ex parte Wilson, this Court decided that an indigent defendant has a constitutional right to the effective assistance of counsel until “appeals are exhausted,”
Addressing the merits of applicant’s Wilson claim is “an appropriate exercise of the habeas corpus power”
With these comments, I join the Court’s opinion.
. See also Article 1.051(d)(1), Tex.Code Crim. Proc., (indigent defendant entitled to counsel in "an appeal to a court of appeals”).
. See generally Anders v. California, 386 U.S. 738, 87 S.Ct. 1396, 18 L.Ed.2d 493 (1967).
. In Anders, 386 U.S. at 744, 87 S.Ct. 1396, the Court described the obligations of appellate counsel who has determined that an appeal would be "wholly frivolous.”
The constitutional requirement of substantial equality and fair process can only be attained where counsel acts in the role of an active advocate in behalf of his client, as opposed to that of amicus curiae. The no-merit letter and the [state] procedure it triggers do not reach that dignity. Counsel should, and can with honor and without conflict, be of more assistance to his client and to the court. (Footnote omitted). His role as advocate requires that he support his client’s appeal to the best of his ability. Of course, if counsel finds his case to be wholly frivolous, after a conscientious examination of it, he should so advise the court and request permission to withdraw. That request must, however, be accompanied by a brief referring to anything in the record that might arguably support the appeal. A copy of counsel's brief should be furnished to the indigent and time allowed him to raise any points that he chooses; the court — not counsel — then proceeds, after a*679 full examination of all the proceedings, to decide whether the case is wholly frivolous. If it so finds it may grant counsel's request to withdraw and dismiss the appeal insofar as federal requirements are concerned, or proceed to a decision on the merits, if state law so requires. On the other hand, if it finds any of the legal points arguable on their merits (and therefore not frivolous) it must, prior to decision, afford the indigent the assistance of counsel to argue the appeal.
.180 S.W.3d 135, 138 (Tex.Cr.App. 2005).
. 991 S.W.2d 859, 861-62 (Tex.Cr.App. 1999).
. See Golden, 991 S.W.2d at 863 (Womack, J., concurring).
Opinion of the Court
OPINION
delivered the opinion of the Court
In this post-conviction application for a
I. The Facts and Procedural History
A Tyler County jury convicted the applicant of aggravated sexual assault of a child. Appellate counsel filed an Anders brief in the court of appeals. Along with the Anders brief, appellate counsel filed a motion to withdraw from representation. The applicant filed a separate pro se brief. The court of appeals affirmed the conviction in a memorandum opinion and dismissed appellate counsel’s motion to withdraw.
Some time later, the applicant filed his application for writ of habeas corpus alleging, among other claims,
I received you letter of July 1, 2003, and in answer to question No. 1,1 think your chance of Habeas Corpus is much better than your chance on a direct appeal. On Habeas Corpus grounds you will have a much better chance of arguing under undue influence on witnesses and jurors lying about knowledge of the case as opposed to an ineffective assistance of counsel claim. The makeup of the current Texas Court of Criminal Appeals is Pro-State and the chances of a new trial are probably fairly slim.
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I wish you the best of luck seeking your relief under Habeas Corpus. If there is anything I can do in that regard please do not hesitate to write.5
In response to the writ application, the State sought an affidavit from appellate counsel. Counsel’s affidavit stated:
After reviewing the record, I determined that there were no issues that could be successfully argued on appeal due to the state of the appellate record. I advised [the applicant] of my conclusions by letter and [the applicant’s] mother of my opinions in person and by telephone. I encouraged them both to*672 hire an attorney to file a writ of habeas corpus for him after the appeal was over. I did not discuss with [the applicant] or his mother filing a petition for discretionary review because, in my professional opinion, a petition for discretionary review would have no chance of being granted and would simply have extended the time [the applicant] would have to wait in prison before filing a writ of habeas corpus that might have a chance of succeeding in reversing his conviction.
The trial court recommended denying relief. We filed and set the cause to determine whether appellate counsel is required to comply with Wilson if counsel has filed an Anders brief on direct appeal. We remanded the cause for a determination of indigency, for the appointment of writ counsel if necessary, and for additional briefing by the parties. The cause is now back before us for decision.
II. The Law
In Ex parte Wilson, we modified our prior holding with respect to what is required of appellate counsel before he concludes his representation of a defendant on direct appeal. A history of the case law leading up to Wilson, and beyond, is helpful to our inquiry whether Wilson requires appellate counsel to inform the applicant of his right to file a pro se petition for discretionary review following Anders proceedings in the court of appeals.
In Ayala v. State,
In Ex parte Jarrett,
Two years later, however, in Ex parte Wilson, the Court revisited Jarrett.
Most recently, in Ex parte Crow,
III. Analysis
We fail to perceive any principled reason that our holding in Wilson should not apply equally to an appellant whose attorney files an Anders brief. As our opinion in Crow recognized, the harm that occurs from the failure to timely inform the appellant of his right to file a petition for discretionary review is that he is deprived of the benefit of an entire proceeding, or at least of the opportunity to exercise his unfettered right to “attempt to persuade us to exercise our discretion.” The appellant whose attorney files an An-ders brief and then fails to alert his client to his Ghent’s right to follow up with a petition for discretionary review is no less deprived of that opportunity than is the appellant whose lawyer has filed an ordinary appellate brief.
The State argues, however, that the harm that accrues to an appellant who is denied his right to petition for discretionary review after a court of appeals has confirmed that his appeal is indeed frivolous, as here, is negligible, and should be measured against the ordinary prejudice prong of Strickland. After all, how good can his chances be of persuading this Court that his petition for discretionary review deserves our attention? For this proposition the State cites the opinion of the United States Supreme Court in Smith v. Robbins.
In Smith v. Robbins the Supreme Court held that the particular procedural mechanism that it had articulated in its opinion thirty-three years earlier in Anders was precatory rather than mandatory, and that the modified procedural mechanism now in place in California is adequate to preserve Robbins’s constitutional right to counsel on
Wdien we held in Crow and in Johnson v. State, upon which Crow relied, that a “limited” prejudice analysis will apply whenever appellate counsel’s deficiency causes an appellant to lose his opportunity to petition this Court for discretionary review, we did not mention Smith v. Robbins. But we did rely heavily upon a Supreme Court decision that was decided barely a month after Smith v. Robbins.
We derived our rationale in Johnson/Crow for applying a “limited” prejudice analysis largely from the Supreme Court’s opinion in Roe v. Flores-Ortega and its antecedents. That rationale applies just as forcefully in the Anders context as in any other. The applicant in this cause was wholly deprived of his opportunity to convince this Court that his appeal was not frivolous after all, or that his constitutional right to counsel was somehow compromised when (or in the particular way that) his appellate attorney filed an Anders brief. We therefore reject the State’s contention that the standard Strickland prejudice-prong analysis ought to apply.
IV. Application of Law to Fact
The applicant filed a -pro se brief in the court of appeals, once he was informed by his appellate counsel that counsel would be filing an Anders brief. This strongly militates in favor of a finding that the applicant would in fact have proceeded further to file a pro se petition for discretionary review as well, just as he alleges.
HERVEY, J., filed a concurring opinion in which JOHNSON and KEASLER, JJ., joined.
. Tex.Code Crim. Pro. art. 11.07.
. 956 S.W.2d 25 (Tex.Crim.App. 1997).
. Owens v. State, No. 10-02-00124-CR, 2003 WL 21468571 (Tex.App.-Waco 2003) (not designated for publication).
. The applicant also claimed that (1) the jury that convicted him was unconstitutionally selected and empaneled, (2) a juror who was empaneled engaged in misconduct, (3) his trial counsel was ineffective, and (4) prosecutors in the case engaged in misconduct.
. Sic passim.
. 633 S.W.2d 526 (Tex.Crim.App. 1982).
. Id., at 527.
. Ibid.
. Ibid.
. Id., at 528 n. 4.
. Ibid.
. 891 S.W.2d 935, 941 (Tex.Crim.App. 1995) (opinion denying State's motion for rehearing).
. Id., at 944.
.Ibid.
. Ibid., citing Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984).
. Ibid.
. Ex parte Jarrett, 891 S.W.2d 935, at 940 (Tex.Crim.App. 1994) (opinion on original submission).
. Id., at 27.
. Id., at 26.
. Id., 27.
. Id., at 26.
. 180 S.W.3d 135 (Tex.Crim.App. 2005).
. 466 U.S. 668, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984).
. 180 S.W.3d, at 137-38. See also, Johnson v. State, 169 S.W.3d 223, at 231-232, 235-236 (Tex.Crim.App. 2005).
. Id., at 138.
. Ibid. See Tex.Code Crim. Proc. art. 44.45(b)(1); Tex.R.App.Proc. 66.1
. In his concurrence, Judge Womack argues that "[t]he principled reason that the holding in Wilson should not apply when counsel files an Anders brief is that such an attorney must sever the attorney-client relationship.” There is no particular reason that counsel filing an Anders brief cannot alert his client to the client’s right to file a petition for discretionary review at the same time that he informs the client of his rights to file a pro se appellate brief, and to review the appellate record in preparation of such a pro se brief. See, e.g., Johnson v. State, 885 S.W.2d 641 (Tex.App.Waco 1994, pet. ref'd) (appellate counsel who files Anders brief has three "educational burdens” with respect to his client: provide client with copy of motion and brief, inform client of his right to file pro se brief, and also inform client of his right to access to appellate record). Appellate counsel should simply add to the list of "educational burdens” a duty to advise his client of the client's pro se right to seek discretionary review as part of the process of filing an Anders brief and moving to withdraw from representation of the client.
. See Getts v. State, 155 S.W.3d 153 (Tex.Crim.App. 2005).
. 528 U.S. 259, 120 S.Ct. 746, 145 L.Ed.2d 756 (2000).
. See Johnson v. State, supra, at 231; Ex parte Crow, supra, at 137-138.
. 528 U.S. 470, 120 S.Ct. 1029, 145 L.Ed.2d 985 (2000).
. Id., U.S. at 484, 120 S.Ct. 1029. See also, Rodriquez v. United States, 395 U.S. 327, at 330, 89 S.Ct. 1715, 23 L.Ed.2d 340 (1969).
. Rodriquez v. United States, supra, U.S. at 330, 89 S.Ct. 1715.
. To be fair, we note that the State filed its supplemental brief in this cause before we issued our opinions in both Johnson and Crow.
. In both his form writ application, and in his memorandum in support of his application, the applicant simply alleged that his appellate counsel was ineffective for failing to notify him of his right to seek discretionary
. State’s Supplemental Brief, at 8.
. See appellate counsel's letter, quoted at page 3, ante.
Dissenting Opinion
dissenting.
In footnote 88, the Court says that applicant has pled sufficient facts to establish, in accordance with the prejudice requirement of Ex parte Crow, that he would have filed a petition for discretionary review had he been timely informed of his right to do so
I respectfully dissent.
. 180 S.W.3d 135, 138 (Tex.Crim.App. 2005).
. Court’s op. at 675-76, n. 38.
. 991 S.W.2d 859, 862 n. 2 (Tex.Crim.App. 1999).
. Id.
Reference
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