Cite as: 506 U. S. 364 (1993)
Stevens, J., dissenting
sional assistance." Id., at 687, 689. Second, the error must be so severe that it gives rise to prejudice, defined quite clearly in Strickland as "a reasonable probability that, but for counsel's unprofessional errors, the result of the proceeding would have been different." Id., at 694. Many signifi-cant errors, as the Court recognized in Kimmelman v. Morrison, 477 U. S. 365, 381-382 (1986), will not meet this "highly demanding" standard. But those that do will require reversal, not because they deprive a defendant of some discrete and independent trial right, but because, as Strickland held, they reflect performance by counsel that has "so undermined the proper functioning of the adversarial process that the trial cannot be relied on as having produced a just result." 466 U. S., at 686.
Under this well-established standard, as the District Court and Court of Appeals both determined, respondent is entitled to relief on his ineffective-assistance claim. That his counsel's performance was so wanting that it was "deficient" for Strickland purposes is not contested. Nor can it be seriously disputed that the decision reached would "reasonably likely have been different," id., at 696, but for counsel's failure to make a double-counting objection supported by Eighth Circuit law.5 Under Strickland, this is the end of the inquiry. Respondent has identified an error of such magnitude that it falls within the narrow class of attorney errors precluding reliance on the outcome of the proceeding. See id., at 691-692. In Sixth Amendment terms, it is as though respondent had shown an actual conflict of interest, or the complete absence of counsel during some part of the sentencing proceeding: The adversary process has malfunctioned, and the resulting verdict is therefore, and without more, constitutionally unacceptable.
5 Neither petitioner nor the Court today directly challenges the District Court's unambiguous conclusion that "the trial court would have followed the ruling in Collins had trial counsel made an appropriate motion." 739 F. Supp. 1334, 1337 (ED Ark. 1990).
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