Cite as: 535 U. S. 162 (2002)
Souter, J., dissenting
explicit objection.12 In that latter case, the duty explicitly described in Sullivan and Wood becomes just a matter of words, devoid of sanction; it ceases to be any duty at all.
As that duty vanishes, so does the sensible regime under which a defendant's burden on conflict claims took account of the opportunities to ensure against conflicted counsel in the first place. Convicted defendants had two alternative avenues to show entitlement to relief. A defendant might, first, point to facts indicating that a judge knew or should have known of a " 'particular conflict,' " Wood, 450 U. S., at 272, n. 18 (quoting Sullivan, 446 U. S., at 347), before that risk had a chance to play itself out with an adverse result. If he could not carry the burden to show that the trial judge had fallen down in the duty to guard against conflicts prospec-12 Requiring a criminal defendant to prove a conflict's adverse effect in all no-objection cases only makes sense on the Court's presumption that the Sixth Amendment right against ineffective assistance of counsel is at its core nothing more than a utilitarian right against unprofessional errors that have detectable effects on outcome. See ante, at 166 ("[I]t also follows that defects in assistance that have no probable effect upon the trial's outcome do not establish a constitutional violation"). On this view, the exception in Holloway for objection cases turns solely on the theory that "harm" can safely be presumed when counsel objects to no avail at the sign of danger. See ante, at 168. But this Court in Strickland v. Washington, 466 U. S. 668, 693-694 (1984), held that a specific "outcome-determinative standard" is "not quite appropriate" and spoke instead of the Sixth Amendment right as one against assistance of counsel that "undermines the reliability of the result of the proceeding," id., at 693, or "confidence in the outcome," id., at 694. And the Holloway Court said that once a conflict objection is made and unheeded, the conviction "must be reversed . . . even if no particular prejudice is shown and even if the defendant was clearly guilty." 435 U. S., at 489 (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). What is clear from Strickland and Holloway is that the right against ineffective assistance of counsel has as much to do with public confidence in the professionalism of lawyers as with the results of legal proceedings. A revelation that a trusted advocate could not place his client's interest above the interests of self and others in the satisfaction of his professional responsibilities will destroy that confidence, regardless of outcome.
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