296
Souter, J., dissenting
scribed the task of an appellate court in terms of this dual responsibility. " 'First, [the court] must satisfy itself that the attorney has provided the client with a diligent and thorough search of the record for any arguable claim that might support the client's appeal. Second, it must determine whether counsel has correctly concluded that the appeal is frivolous.' " Penson, 488 U. S., at 83 (quoting McCoy, 486 U. S., at 442).
Griffin and Anders thus require significantly more than the abstract evaluation of the merits of conceivably appealable points. Without the assurance that assigned counsel has done his best as a partisan, his substantial equality to a lawyer retained at a defendant's expense cannot be assumed. And without the benefit of the lawyer's statement of strongest claims, the appellate panel cannot act as a reviewing court, but is relegated to an inquisitorial role.
It is owing to the importance of assuring that an adversarial, not an inquisitorial, system is at work that I disagree with the Court's statement today that our cases approve of any state procedure that "reasonably ensures that an indigent's appeal will be resolved in a way that is related to the merit of that appeal." Ante, at 276-277. A purely inquisitorial system could satisfy that criterion, and so could one that appoints counsel only if the appellate court deems it useful. But we have rejected the former and have explicitly held the latter unconstitutional, see Douglas, 372 U. S., at 355, the reason in each case being that the Constitution looks to the means as well as to the ends.4 See Singer v. United States, 380 U. S. 24, 36 (1965) ("The Constitution recognizes an adversary system as the proper method of determining guilt . . ."). See also, e. g., Penson, supra, at 87 ("A criminal appellant is entitled to a single-minded advocacy . . .");
4 Of course, if appellate review is not constitutionally required, States may well be able to impose nonadversarial review on all appellants. They may not, however, reserve the adversary system for those able to afford counsel.
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