292
Souter, J., dissenting
California's so-called Wende procedure, it would violate the "principle of substantial equality" that was described in Anders and McCoy and has been a part of our law for decades. McCoy, 486 U. S., at 438; Anders, 386 U. S., at 744.
Justice Souter, with whom Justice Stevens, Justice Ginsburg, and Justice Breyer join, dissenting.
A defendant's right to representation on appeal is limited by the prohibition against frivolous litigation, and I realize that when a lawyer's corresponding obligations are at odds with each other, there is no perfect place to draw the line between them. But because I believe the procedure adopted in People v. Wende, 25 Cal. 3d 436, 600 P. 2d 1071 (1979), fails to assure representation by counsel with the adversarial character demanded by the Constitution, I respectfully dissent.
I
Although the Sixth Amendment guarantees trial counsel to a felony defendant, see Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U. S. 335 (1963), the Constitution contains no similarly freestanding, unconditional right to counsel on appeal, there being no obligation to provide appellate review at all, see Ross v. Moffitt, 417 U. S. 600, 606 (1974). When a State elects to provide appellate review, however, the terms on which it does so are subject to constitutional notice. See, e. g., Griffin v. Illinois, 351 U. S. 12, 18 (1956); Rinaldi v. Yeager, 384 U. S. 305, 310 (1966); Evitts v. Lucey, 469 U. S. 387, 393 (1985).
In a line of cases beginning with Griffin, this Court examined appellate procedural schemes under the principle that justice may not be conditioned on ability to pay, see generally Ross, supra, at 605-609. Even though "[a]bsolute equality is not required," Douglas v. California, 372 U. S. 353, 357 (1963), we held in Douglas that when state criminal defendants are free to retain counsel for a first appeal as of right,
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