Roe v. Flores-Ortega, 528 U.S. 470, 7 (2000)

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476

ROE v. FLORES-ORTEGA

Opinion of the Court

notice of appeal was without the petitioner's consent— tracked its earlier opinion in Lozada v. Deeds, 964 F. 2d 956 (1992), which predated respondent's conviction. 160 F. 3d 534 (1998). Because respondent did not consent to the failure to file a notice of appeal—and thus qualified for relief under Stearns—the court remanded the case to the District Court with instructions to issue a conditional habeas writ unless the state court allowed respondent a new appeal. We granted certiorari, 526 U. S. 1097 (1999), to resolve a conflict in the lower courts regarding counsel's obligations to file a notice of appeal. Compare United States v. Tajeddini, 945 F. 2d 458, 468 (CA1 1991) (per curiam) (counsel's failure to file a notice of appeal, allegedly without the defendant's knowledge or consent, constitutes deficient performance); Morales v. United States, 143 F. 3d 94, 97 (CA2 1998) (counsel has no duty to file a notice of appeal unless requested by the defendant); Ludwig v. United States, 162 F. 3d 456, 459 (CA6 1998) (Constitution implicated only when defendant actually requests an appeal and counsel disregards the request); Castellanos v. United States, 26 F. 3d 717, 719-720 (CA7 1994) (same); Romero v. Tansy, 46 F. 3d 1024, 1030-1031 (CA10 1995) (defendant does not need to express to counsel his intent to appeal for counsel to be constitutionally obligated to perfect defendant's appeal; unless defendant waived right, counsel was deficient for failing to advise defendant about appeal right); United States v. Stearns, supra, (counsel's failure to file a notice of appeal is deficient unless the defendant consents to the abandonment of his appeal).

II

In Strickland v. Washington, 466 U. S. 668 (1984), we held that criminal defendants have a Sixth Amendment right to "reasonably effective" legal assistance, id., at 687, and announced a now-familiar test: A defendant claiming ineffective assistance of counsel must show (1) that counsel's representation "fell below an objective standard of reasonableness,"

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