716
Stevens, J., dissenting
medical records that he suffered from a severe mental impairment. He began treatment for this illness a couple of years after trial, and he committed suicide approximately six months after the postconviction hearing in this case. See App. 88-89. The symptoms of his disorder included "con-fused thinking, impaired memory, inability to concentrate for more than a short period of time, paranoia, grandiosity, [and] inappropriate behavior." Id., at 88. While these mental health problems may have onset after Cone's trial, a complete reading of the trial transcript and an assessment of Dice's actions at trial suggest this not to be the case.
A theme of fear of possible counterthrusts by his adversaries permeates Dice's loquacious explanations of his tactical decisions. But fear of the opponent cannot justify such absolute dereliction of a lawyer's duty to the client—especially a client facing death. For "[t]he very premise of our adversary system of criminal justice is that partisan advocacy on both sides of a case will best promote the ultimate objective that the guilty be convicted and the innocent go free." Herring v. New York, 422 U. S. 853, 862 (1975). There may be cases in which such timidity is consistent with a "meaningful adversarial testing" of the prosecution's case, Cronic, 466 U. S., at 659, but my examination of the record has produced a firm conviction that this is not such a case.
The Court claims that Cronic's second prong only applies when "counsel failed to oppose the prosecution throughout the sentencing proceeding as a whole." Ante, at 697 (emphasis added). But that is exactly what Dice did. It is true, as the Court claims, that respondent's complaints about Dice's performance can be framed as complaints about what Dice failed to do "at specific points," ibid. However, when those complaints concern "points" that encompass all of counsel's fundamental duties at a capital sentencing proceeding— performing a mitigation investigation, putting on available mitigation evidence, and making a plea for the defendant's life after the State has asked for death—counsel has failed
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