856
Opinion of the Court
able to file successful petitions for collateral relief without the assistance of persons learned in the law." Murray v. Giarratano, 492 U. S. 1, 14 (1989) (Kennedy, J., joined by O'Connor, J., concurring in judgment); see also id., at 28 (Stevens, J., joined by Brennan, Marshall, and Blackmun, JJ., dissenting) ("[T]his Court's death penalty jurisprudence unquestionably is difficult even for a trained lawyer to master").
Habeas corpus petitions must meet heightened pleading requirements, see 28 U. S. C. § 2254 Rule 2(c), and comply with this Court's doctrines of procedural default and waiver, see Coleman v. Thompson, 501 U. S. 722 (1991). Federal courts are authorized to dismiss summarily any habeas petition that appears legally insufficient on its face, see 28 U. S. C. § 2254 Rule 4, and to deny a stay of execution where a habeas petition fails to raise a substantial federal claim, see Barefoot v. Estelle, 463 U. S. 880, 894 (1983). Moreover, should a defendant's pro se petition be summarily dismissed, any petition subsequently filed by counsel could be subject to dismissal as an abuse of the writ. See McCleskey v. Zant, 499 U. S. 467, 494 (1991). Requiring an indigent capital petitioner to proceed without counsel in order to obtain counsel thus would expose him to the substantial risk that his habeas claims never would be heard on the merits. Congress legislated against this legal backdrop in adopting § 848(q)(4)(B), and we safely assume that it did not intend for the express requirement of counsel to be defeated in this manner.
The language and purposes of § 848(q)(4)(B) and its related provisions establish that the right to appointed counsel includes a right to legal assistance in the preparation of a habeas corpus application. We therefore conclude that a "post conviction proceeding" within the meaning of § 848(q)(4)(B) is commenced by the filing of a death row defendant's motion requesting the appointment of counsel for his federal habeas
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