264
Opinion of the Court
Ronald J. Nessim, by appointment of the Court, 526 U. S. 1109, argued the cause for respondent. With him on the brief were Thomas R. Freeman and Elizabeth A. Newman.*
Justice Thomas delivered the opinion of the Court.
Not infrequently, an attorney appointed to represent an indigent defendant on appeal concludes that an appeal would be frivolous and requests that the appellate court allow him to withdraw or that the court dispose of the case without the filing of merits briefs. In Anders v. California, 386 U. S. 738 (1967), we held that, in order to protect indigent defendants' constitutional right to appellate counsel, courts must safeguard against the risk of granting such requests in cases where the appeal is not actually frivolous. We found inadequate California's procedure—which permitted appellate counsel to withdraw upon filing a conclusory letter stating that the appeal had "no merit" and permitted the appellate court to affirm the conviction upon reaching the same conclusion following a review of the record. We went on to set
*Briefs of amici curiae urging reversal were filed for the State of Arizona et al. by Janet Napolitano, Attorney General of Arizona, Colleen L. French, Assistant Attorney General, and Paul J. McMurde; and by the Attorneys General for their respective States as follows: Bill Pryor of Alabama, M. Jane Brady of Delaware, Thurbert E. Baker of Georgia, Mike Moore of Mississippi, Frankie Sue Del Papa of Nevada, D. Michael Fisher of Pennsylvania, Paul G. Summers of Tennessee, Ken Salazar of Colorado, Robert A. Butterworth of Florida, Richard P. Ieyoub of Louisiana, Don Stenberg of Nebraska, Patricia A. Madrid of New Mexico, Charles M. Condon of South Carolina, and Mark L. Earley of Virginia; for the California Academy of Appellate Lawyers by Robert S. Gerstein, Jay-Allen Eisen, Michael M. Berger, Peter W. Davis, Rex S. Heinke, Wendy C. Lascher, Gerald Z. Marer, and Jonathan B. Steiner; and for the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation by Kent S. Scheidegger and Charles L. Hobson.
Briefs of amici curiae urging affirmance were filed for the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers by Leon Friedman; and for Jesus Garcia Delgado by Michael B. Dashjian.
Gregory R. Smith filed a brief for retired Justice Armand Arabian et al. as amici curiae.
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