Cite as: 535 U. S. 685 (2002)
Appendix to opinion of Stevens, J.
tion provides "the means through which the other rights of the person on trial are secured." Cronic, 466 U. S., at 653. For that reason, there is "a denial of Sixth Amendment rights that makes the adversary process itself presumptively unreliable" whenever defense counsel "entirely fails to subject the prosecution's case to meaningful adversary testing." Id., at 659. That is exactly what happened in the penalty phase of Gary Cone's trial.
I respectfully dissent.
APPENDIX TO OPINION OF STEVENS, J.
Excerpt from Dice's postconviction testimony in which he explains his reasons for waiving closing argument:
"Q: While we're on that subject, will you summarize for us all the reasons that you had at that time, and not at this time, but at that time, for waiver of final argument in the penalty phase of the Cone matter?
"A: Okay. Number one; I thought that we had put on almost every mitigating circumstance that we had. Okay? In the first phase of the trial.
"Number two; I managed to sucker Mr. Patterson and Mr. Strother into putting on my Bronze Star decoration without having my defendant testify, which I felt was pretty good trial tactics. I know when I asked Mr. Blackwell that question, one of the two of them over there became un-glued. Okay.
"Number three; I thought the trial judge had lost control of the case. He allowed Mr. Strother to call me unethical twice in front of the jury, and he did several things in there
presses Death Penalty Doubt; Justice Says Innocent May Be Killed, Washington Post, July 4, 2001, p. A1 (reporting Justice O'Connor's comment that "Perhaps it's time to look at minimum standards for appointed counsel in death cases" and Justice Ginsburg's comment that "I have yet to see a death case, among the dozens coming to the Supreme Court on the eve of execution petitions, in which the defendant was well represented at trial").
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