KIMMELMAN, ATTORNEY GENERAL OF NEW JERSEY, ET AL. v. MORRISON
No. 84-1661
SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
Argued March 5, 1986—Decided June 26, 1986
477 U.S. 365
Allan J. Nodes argued the cause for petitioners. With him on the brief were Irwin I. Kimmelman, Attorney General of New Jersey, and Catherine A. Foddai, Mildred Vallerini Spiller, and Arlene R. Weiss, Deputy Attorneys General.
William E. Staehle, by appointment of the Court 474 U. S. 917, argued the cause and filed a brief for respondent.*
*Leon Friedman, Charles S. Sims, and Burt Neuborne filed a brief for the American Civil Liberties Union et al. as amici curiae urging affirmance.
The question we address in this case is whether the restrictions on federal habeas review of Fourth Amendment claims announced in Stone v. Powell, 428 U. S. 465 (1976), should be extended to Sixth Amendment claims of ineffective assistance of counsel where the principal allegation and manifestation of inadequate representation is counsel‘s failure to file a timely motion to suppress evidence allegedly obtained in violation of the Fourth Amendment.
I
Respondent, Neil Morrison, was convicted by the State of New Jersey of raping a 15-year-old girl. The case presented by the State at respondent‘s bench trial consisted of scientific evidence and of the testimony of the victim, her mother, and the police officers who handled the victim‘s complaint.
The victim testified that Morrison, who was her employer, had taken her to his apartment, where he forced her onto his bed and raped her. Upon returning home, the girl related the incident to her mother, who, after first summoning Morrison and asking for his account of events, phoned the police. The police came to the victim‘s home and transported her to the hospital, where she was examined and tested for indicia of a sexual assault.
The State also called as a witness Detective Dolores Most, one of the officers who investigated the rape complaint. Most testified that she accompanied the victim to Morrison‘s apartment building a few hours after the rape. Morrison was not at home, but another tenant in the building let them into respondent‘s one-room apartment. While there, Most stated, she seized a sheet from respondent‘s bed.
At this point in the testimony respondent‘s counsel objected to the introduction of the sheet and to any testimony concerning it on the ground that Most had seized it without a search warrant. New Jersey Court Rules, however, require
Asked repeatedly by the trial court why he had not conducted any discovery, respondent‘s attorney asserted that it was the State‘s obligation to inform him of its case against his client, even though he made no request for discovery. The judge rejected this assertion and stated: “I hate to say it, but I have to say it, that you were remiss. I think this evidence was there and available to you for examination and inquiry.” 2 Tr. 114. Defense counsel then attempted to justify his omission on the ground that he had not expected to go to trial because he had been told that the victim did not wish to proceed. The judge rejected this justification also, reminding counsel that once an indictment is handed down, the decision to go through with the complaint no longer belongs to the victim, and that it requires a court order to dismiss an indictment. Id., at 115. While the judge agreed that defense counsel had “br[ought] about a very valid basis . . . for suppression . . . if the motion had been brought and timely made,” he refused “to entertain a motion to suppress in the middle of the trial.” Id., at 110.
The defense called four friends and acquaintances of the defendant and the defendant himself in an attempt to establish a different version of the facts. The defense theory was that the girl and her mother fabricated the rape in order to punish respondent for being delinquent with the girl‘s wages. According to Morrison, the girl and her mother had not intended to go through with the prosecution, but ultimately they found it impossible to extricate themselves from their lies. Morrison admitted that he had taken the girl to his apartment, but denied having had intercourse with her. He claimed that his sexual activity with other women accounted for the stains on his sheet, and that a hair from the girl‘s head was on his sheet because she had seated herself on his bed. Defense counsel also implied that the girl‘s underwear and vaginal secretions tested positive for semen and sperm because she probably had recently engaged in relations with the father of her baby. Counsel did not, however, call the girl‘s boyfriend to testify or have him tested for blood type, an omission upon which the prosecution commented in closing argument.
The trial judge, in rendering his verdict, noted: “As in most cases nothing is cut and dry. There are discrepancies in the State‘s case, there are discrepancies in the defense as
After trial, respondent dismissed his attorney and retained new counsel for his appeal. On appeal, respondent alleged ineffective assistance of counsel and error in the trial court‘s refusal to entertain the suppression motion during trial. The appeals court announced summarily that it found no merit in either claim and affirmed respondent‘s conviction. The Supreme Court of New Jersey subsequently denied respondent‘s petition for discretionary review. Respondent then sought postconviction relief in the New Jersey Superior Court, from the same judge who had tried his case. There Morrison presented the identical issues he had raised on direct appeal. The court denied relief on the ground that it was bound by the appellate court‘s resolution of those issues against respondent.
Respondent then sought a writ of habeas corpus in Federal District Court, again raising claims of ineffective assistance of counsel and erroneous admission of illegally seized evidence. The District Court ruled that because respondent did not allege that the State had denied him an opportunity to litigate his Fourth Amendment claim fully and fairly, direct consideration of this claim on federal habeas review was barred by Stone v. Powell, 428 U. S. 465 (1976). 579 F. Supp. 796 (NJ 1984). The District Court did find respondent‘s ineffective-assistance claim meritorious.
Because the District Court rendered its decision before this Court announced the standards to be applied to claims of constitutionally deficient representation in Strickland v. Washington, 466 U. S. 668 (1984), the District Court relied on Third Circuit precedent for guidance, particularly United States v. Baynes, 687 F. 2d 659 (1982), and Moore v. United States, 432 F. 2d 730 (1970). Like Strickland, these cases required a two-pronged inquiry into counsel‘s competence and
“[C]ounsel failed to conduct any meaningful pretrial discovery, and thus was totally unaware that certain damaging evidence might have been the appropriate subject for a suppression motion. Counsel seems to have acted on the misapprehension that the State was obligated to turn over anything that the defense might be interested in examining. Little else was offered by way of excuse by [Morrison‘s] lawyer in the face of repeated criticism by the state trial judge, except for counsel‘s rather remarkable attempt to justify his conduct by noting that up until trial he had been told that the victim ‘didn‘t want to go ahead with this case.’ . . . Based on the unmitigated negligence of petitioner‘s trial counsel in failing to conduct any discovery, combined with the likelihood of success of a suppression motion had it been timely made, we find that petitioner was deprived of effective representation.” 579 F. Supp., at 802–803.
The District Court then determined that, measured by the harmless-beyond-a-reasonable-doubt standard prescribed by Baynes, supra, respondent had been prejudiced by counsel‘s ineffectiveness and issued a conditional writ of habeas corpus ordering Morrison‘s release unless New Jersey should retry him.
Although the District Court did not address the relevance of Stone, supra, to respondent‘s Sixth Amendment ineffective-assistance-of-counsel claim, the Court of Appeals did. Relying on both the language of Stone and the different natures of Fourth and Sixth Amendment claims, the Court of
Petitioners, the Attorney General of New Jersey and the Superintendent of Rahway State Prison, petitioned for certiorari. We granted their petition, 474 U. S. 815 (1985), and now affirm.
II
Petitioners urge that the Sixth Amendment veil be lifted from respondent‘s habeas petition to reveal what petitioners argue it really is—an attempt to litigate his defaulted Fourth Amendment claim. They argue that because respondent‘s claim is in fact, if not in form, a Fourth Amendment one, Stone directly controls here. Alternatively, petitioners maintain that even if Morrison‘s Sixth Amendment claim may legitimately be considered distinct from his defaulted Fourth Amendment claim, the rationale and purposes of Stone are fully applicable to ineffective-assistance claims where the principal allegation of inadequate representation is counsel‘s failure to file a timely motion to suppress evidence allegedly obtained in violation of the Fourth Amendment. Stone, they argue, will be emasculated unless we extend its bar against federal habeas review to this sort of Sixth Amendment claim. Finally, petitioners maintain that consideration of defaulted Fourth Amendment claims in Sixth Amendment federal collateral proceedings would violate principles of comity and
A
We do not share petitioners’ perception of the identity between respondent‘s Fourth and Sixth Amendment claims. While defense counsel‘s failure to make a timely suppression motion is the primary manifestation of incompetence and source of prejudice advanced by respondent, the two claims are nonetheless distinct, both in nature and in the requisite elements of proof.
Although it is frequently invoked in criminal trials, the Fourth Amendment is not a trial right; the protection it affords against governmental intrusion into one‘s home and affairs pertains to all citizens. The gravamen of a Fourth Amendment claim is that the complainant‘s legitimate expectation of privacy has been violated by an illegal search or seizure. See, e. g., Katz v. United States, 389 U. S. 347 (1967). In order to prevail, the complainant need prove only that the search or seizure was illegal and that it violated his reasonable expectation of privacy in the item or place at issue. See, e. g., Rawlings v. Kentucky, 448 U. S. 98, 104 (1980).
The right to counsel is a fundamental right of criminal defendants; it assures the fairness, and thus the legitimacy, of our adversary process. E. g., Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U. S. 335, 344 (1963). The essence of an ineffective-assistance claim is that counsel‘s unprofessional errors so upset the adversarial balance between defense and prosecution that the trial was rendered unfair and the verdict rendered suspect. See, e. g., Strickland v. Washington, 466 U. S., at 686; United States v. Cronic, 466 U. S. 648,
B
We also disagree with petitioners’ contention that the reasoning and purposes of Stone are fully applicable to a Sixth Amendment claim which is based principally on defense counsel‘s failure to litigate a Fourth Amendment claim competently.
At issue in Stone was the proper scope of federal collateral protection of criminal defendants’ right to have evidence, seized in violation of the Fourth Amendment, excluded at trial in state court. In determining that federal courts should withhold habeas review where the State has provided an opportunity for full and fair litigation of a Fourth Amendment claim, the Court found it crucial that the remedy for Fourth Amendment violations provided by the exclusionary rule “is not a personal constitutional right.” 428 U. S., at 486; see also id., at 495, n. 37. The Court expressed the understanding that the rule “is not calculated to redress the injury to the privacy of the victim of the search or seizure,” id., at 486; instead, the Court explained, the exclusionary rule is predominately a “judicially created” structural rem-
The Court further noted that “[a]s in the case of any remedial device, ‘the application of the rule has been restricted to those areas where its remedial objectives are thought most efficaciously served,‘” 428 U. S., at 486–487 (quoting Calandra, supra, at 348), and that the rule has not been extended to situations such as grand jury proceedings, 428 U. S., at 486–487, (citing Calandra, supra), and impeachment of a defendant who testifies broadly in his own behalf, id., at 488 (citing Walder v. United States, 347 U. S. 62 (1954)), where the rule‘s costs would outweigh its utility as a deterrent to police misconduct. Applying this “pragmatic analysis,” 428 U. S., at 488, to the question whether prisoners who have been afforded a full and fair opportunity in state court to invoke the exclusionary rule may raise their Fourth Amendment claims on federal habeas review, the Court determined that they may not. While accepting that the exclusionary rule‘s deterrent effect outweighs its costs when enforced at trial and on direct appeal, the Court found any “additional contribution . . . of the consideration of search-and-seizure claims . . . on collateral review,” id., at 493, to be too small in relation to the costs to justify federal habeas review. Id., at 492–495.
In Stone the Court also made clear that its “decision . . . [was] not concerned with the scope of the habeas corpus statute as authority for litigating constitutional claims generally.” Id., at 495, n. 37 (emphasis in original). Rather, the Court simply “reaffirm[ed] that the exclusionary rule is a judicially created remedy rather than a personal constitutional right . . . and . . . emphasiz[ed] the minimal utility of the rule” in the context of federal collateral proceedings. Ibid. See also Rose v. Mitchell, 443 U. S. 545, 560 (1979) (“In Stone v. Powell . . . the Court carefully limited the reach of its opinion . . . to cases involving the judicially created exclu-
In contrast to the habeas petitioner in Stone, who sought merely to avail himself of the exclusionary rule, Morrison seeks direct federal habeas protection of his personal right to effective assistance of counsel.
The right of an accused to counsel is beyond question a fundamental right. See, e. g., Gideon, 372 U. S., at 344 (“The right of one charged with crime to counsel may not be deemed fundamental and essential to fair trials in some countries, but it is in ours“). Without counsel the right to a fair trial itself would be of little consequence, see, e. g., Cronic, supra, at 653; United States v. Ash, 413 U. S. 300, 307–308 (1973); Argersinger v. Hamlin, 407 U. S. 25, 31–32 (1972); Gideon, supra, at 343–345; Johnson v. Zerbst, 304 U. S. 458, 462–463 (1938); Powell v. Alabama, 287 U. S. 45, 68–69 (1932), for it is through counsel that the accused secures his other rights. Maine v. Moulton, 474 U. S. 159, 168–170 (1985); Cronic, supra, at 653; see also, Schaefer, Federalism and State Criminal Procedure, 70 Harv. L. Rev. 1, 8 (1956) (“Of all the rights that an accused person has, the right to be represented by counsel is by far the most pervasive, for it affects his ability to assert any other rights he may have“). The constitutional guarantee of counsel, however, “cannot be satisfied by mere formal appointment,” Avery v. Alabama, 308 U. S. 444, 446 (1940). “An accused is entitled to be assisted by an attorney, whether retained or appointed, who plays the role necessary to ensure that the trial is fair.” Strickland, supra, at 685. In other words, the right to counsel is the right to effective assistance of counsel. Evitts v. Lucey, 469 U. S. 387, 395–396 (1985); Strickland, supra, at
Because collateral review will frequently be the only means through which an accused can effectuate the right to counsel, restricting the litigation of some Sixth Amendment claims to trial and direct review would seriously interfere with an accused‘s right to effective representation. A layman will ordinarily be unable to recognize counsel‘s errors and to evaluate counsel‘s professional performance, cf. Powell v. Alabama, supra, at 69; consequently a criminal defendant will rarely know that he has not been represented competently until after trial or appeal, usually when he consults another lawyer about his case. Indeed, an accused will often not realize that he has a meritorious ineffectiveness claim until he begins collateral review proceedings, particularly if he retained trial counsel on direct appeal. Were we to extend Stone and hold that criminal defendants may not raise ineffective-assistance claims that are based primarily on incompetent handling of Fourth Amendment issues on federal habeas, we would deny most defendants whose trial attorneys performed incompetently in this regard the opportunity to vindicate their right to effective trial counsel. We would deny all defendants whose appellate counsel performed inadequately with respect to Fourth Amendment issues the opportunity to protect their right to effective appellate counsel. See Evitts, supra. Thus, we cannot say, as the Court was able to say in Stone, that restriction of federal habeas review would not severely interfere with the protection of the constitutional right asserted by the habeas petitioner.3
We also reject the suggestion that criminal defendants should not be allowed to vindicate through federal habeas review their right to effective assistance of counsel where counsel‘s primary error is failure to make a timely request for the exclusion of illegally seized evidence—evidence which is “typically reliable and often the most probative information bearing on the guilt or innocence of the defendant.” Stone, 428 U. S., at 490. While we have recognized that the “premise of our adversary system of criminal justice . . . that partisan advocacy . . . will best promote the ultimate objective that the guilty be convicted and the innocent go
C
Stone‘s restriction on federal habeas review, petitioners warn, will be stripped of all practical effect unless we extend it to Sixth Amendment claims based principally on defense counsel‘s incompetent handling of Fourth Amendment issues. Petitioners predict that every Fourth Amendment claim that fails or is defaulted in state court will be fully litigated in federal habeas proceedings in Sixth Amendment guise and that, as a result, many state-court judgments will be disturbed.
In order to establish ineffective representation, the defendant must prove both incompetence and prejudice.6 466 U. S., at 688. There is a strong presumption that counsel‘s performance falls within the “wide range of professional assistance,” id., at 689; the defendant bears the burden of proving that counsel‘s representation was unreasonable under prevailing professional norms and that the challenged action was not sound strategy. Id., at 688–689. The reasonableness of counsel‘s performance is to be evaluated from counsel‘s perspective at the time of the alleged error and in light of all the circumstances, and the standard of review is highly deferential. Id., at 689. The defendant shows that he was prejudiced by his attorney‘s ineffectiveness by demonstrating that “there is a reasonable probability that, but for counsel‘s unprofessional errors, the result of the proceeding would have been different.” Id., at 694. See also, id., at 695 (Where a defendant challenges his conviction, he must show that there exists “a reasonable probability that, absent the errors, the factfinder would have had a reasonable doubt respecting guilt“). And, in determining the existence vel non of prejudice, the court “must consider the totality of the evidence before the judge or jury.” Ibid.
D
In summary, we reject petitioners’ argument that Stone‘s restriction on federal habeas review of Fourth Amendment
III
Petitioners also argue that respondent has not satisfied either the performance or the prejudice prong of the test for ineffective assistance of counsel set forth in Strickland. We address each component of that test in turn.
A
With respect to the performance component of the Strickland test, petitioners contend that Morrison has not overcome the strong presumption of attorney competence established by Strickland. While acknowledging that this Court has said that a single, serious error may support a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel, Brief for Petitioners 33, n. 16 (citing Cronic, 466 U. S., at 657, n. 20),8 petitioners argue that the mere failure to file a timely suppression motion alone does not constitute a per se Sixth Amendment violation. They maintain that the record “amply reflects that trial counsel crafted a sound trial strategy” and that, “[v]iewed in its entirety, counsel‘s pretrial investigation,
In Strickland we explained that “access to counsel‘s skill and knowledge is necessary to accord defendants the ‘ample opportunity to meet the case of the prosecution’ to which they are entitled.” 466 U. S., at 685 (quoting Adams v. United States ex rel. McCann, 317 U. S. 269, 275, 276 (1942)). “Counsel . . . has a duty to bring to bear such skill and knowledge as will render the trial a reliable adversarial testing process.” 466 U. S., at 688. Counsel‘s competence, however, is presumed, id., at 689, and the defendant must rebut this presumption by proving that his attorney‘s representation was unreasonable under prevailing professional norms and that the challenged action was not sound strategy. Id., at 688–689. The reasonableness of counsel‘s performance is to be evaluated from counsel‘s perspective at the time of the alleged error and in light of all the circumstances. Id., at 689. In making the competency determination, the court “should keep in mind that counsel‘s function, as elaborated in prevailing professional norms, is to make the adversarial testing process work in the particular case.” Id., at 690. Because that testing process generally will not function properly unless defense counsel has done some investigation into the prosecution‘s case and into various defense strategies, we noted that “counsel has a duty to make reasonable investigations or to make a reasonable decision that makes particular investigations unnecessary.” Id., at 691. But, we observed, “a particular decision not to investigate must be directly assessed for reasonableness in all the circumstances, applying a heavy measure of deference to counsel‘s judgments.” Ibid.
Viewing counsel‘s failure to conduct any discovery from his perspective at the time he decided to forgo that stage of pretrial preparation and applying a “heavy measure of deference,” ibid., to his judgment, we find counsel‘s decision unreasonable, that is, contrary to prevailing professional norms. The justifications Morrison‘s attorney offered for his omission betray a startling ignorance of the law—or a weak attempt to shift blame for inadequate preparation. “[C]ounsel has a duty to make reasonable investigations or to make a reasonable decision that makes particular investigations unnecessary.” Ibid. Respondent‘s lawyer neither investigated, nor made a reasonable decision not to investigate, the State‘s case through discovery. Such a complete lack of pretrial preparation puts at risk both the defendant‘s right to an “ample opportunity to meet the case of the prosecution,” id., at 685 (quoting Adams, supra, at 275), and the reliability of the adversarial testing process. See 466 U. S., at 688.
Petitioners attempt to minimize the seriousness of counsel‘s errors by asserting that the State‘s case turned far more on the credibility of witnesses than on the bedsheet and related testimony. Consequently, they urge, defense counsel‘s vigorous cross-examination, attempts to discredit witnesses, and effort to establish a different version of the facts
Strickland requires a reviewing court to “determine whether, in light of all the circumstances, the identified acts or omissions were outside the wide range of professionally competent assistance.” Id., at 690. It will generally be appropriate for a reviewing court to assess counsel‘s overall performance throughout the case in order to determine whether the “identified acts or omissions” overcome the presumption that counsel rendered reasonable professional assistance. Since “[t]here are countless ways to provide effective assistance in any given case,” id., at 689, unless consideration is given to counsel‘s overall performance, before and at trial, it will be “all too easy for a court, examining counsel‘s defense after it has proved unsuccessful, to conclude that a particular act or omission of counsel was unreasonable.” Ibid.
In this case, however, we deal with a total failure to conduct pretrial discovery, and one as to which counsel offered only implausible explanations. Counsel‘s performance at trial, while generally creditable enough, suggests no better explanation for this apparent and pervasive failure to “make reasonable investigations or to make a reasonable decision that makes particular investigations unnecessary.” Id., at 691. Under these circumstances, although the failure of the District Court and the Court of Appeals to examine counsel‘s overall performance was inadvisable, we think this omission did not affect the soundness of the conclusion both courts reached—that counsel‘s performance fell below the level of reasonable professional assistance in the respects alleged.
Moreover, petitioners’ analysis is flawed, however, by their use of hindsight to evaluate the relative importance of various components of the State‘s case. See, id., at 689 (“A fair assessment of attorney performance requires that every effort be made to eliminate the distorting effects of hindsight, to reconstruct the circumstances of counsel‘s challenged con-
B
1
Petitioners also argue that respondent suffered no prejudice from his attorney‘s failure to make a timely suppression motion and that the Third Circuit erred in remanding the case to the District Court for a determination of prejudice under Strickland‘s standard. The essence of petitioners’ argument is that, at a post-trial hearing on respondent‘s motion for bail pending appeal, the same judge who presided at respondent‘s trial made a finding of historical fact, which is entitled to a presumption of correctness under
In New Jersey, bail after conviction is appropriate where a substantial issue for review exists and where the defendant poses no threat to the community.
With respect to the court‘s decision to admit the sheet, Morrison‘s attorney presented what is most accurately characterized as an abuse-of-discretion argument. He suggested that because trial counsel had been surprised by the introduction of the sheet, the court should have waived the pretrial filing requirement for suppression motions and should have permitted the midtrial motion. Id., at 5. The judge responded to this argument by noting:
“The matter of the sheet and the tests that resulted therefrom obviously were important, they were not the most important phases of this case by any means.
“Obviously, the most important phases of the case were direct testimony from the victim herself as well as from testimony of witnesses, police, medical examinations, and testimony from the defense, testimony by the defendant. The sheet was just one small phase in this whole case. I do not think that it is such a substantial issue for review by the Appellate Division which would cause or be likely to cause a reversal.” Id., at 11.
Petitioners direct our attention to the court‘s statement that “[t]he sheet was just one small phase in this whole case.” Ibid. While acknowledging this Court‘s explanation in Strickland that both the performance and the prejudice components of the ineffectiveness test are mixed questions of fact and law and that therefore a state court‘s ultimate conclusions regarding competence and prejudice are not findings of fact binding on the federal court to the extent stated by
We do not agree with petitioners that the statement made by the judge at respondent‘s bail hearing constitutes a finding of fact which is subject to
Not only was the judge not asked to answer the question presently before the federal courts, he did not answer it. He stated only that while the sheet was an important aspect of
Because it cannot fairly be said that the “merits of the factual dispute,”
2
Respondent also criticizes the Court of Appeals’ decision to remand for redetermination of prejudice. He argues that the record is sufficiently complete to enable this Court to apply Strickland‘s prejudice prong directly to the facts of his case and urges that we do so.
We decline respondent‘s invitation. While the existing record proved adequate for our application of Strickland‘s competency standard, it is incomplete with respect to prejudice. No evidentiary hearing has ever been held on the merits of respondent‘s Fourth Amendment claim. Because the State has not conceded the illegality of the search and seizure, Tr. of Oral Arg. 11-12, it is entitled to an opportunity to establish that Officer Most‘s search came within one of the exceptions we have recognized to the Fourth Amendment‘s
The judgment of the Court of Appeals is
Affirmed.
JUSTICE POWELL, with whom THE CHIEF JUSTICE and JUSTICE REHNQUIST join, concurring in the judgment.
I agree that Stone v. Powell, 428 U.S. 465 (1976), does not bar consideration of respondent‘s ineffective-assistance-of-counsel claim on federal habeas corpus. That conclusion flows logically from Stone and from Strickland v. Washington, 466 U. S. 668 (1984). The more difficult question is whether the admission of illegally seized but reliable evidence can ever constitute “prejudice” under Strickland. There is a strong argument that it cannot. But that argument has neither been raised by the parties nor discussed by the various courts involved in this case. Consequently, the proper course is to reject petitioners’ Stone v. Powell argument and go no further. Though the Court appears to take this course, it employs unnecessarily broad language that may suggest that we have considered and resolved the broader Strickland issue in this case. E. g., ante, at 379-380. I write separately because that suggestion is mistaken, and also to express my view of the relationship between Stone and the Sixth Amendment right to the effective assistance of counsel.
I
Respondent‘s ineffective-assistance claim is uncomplicated. Respondent argues that his trial counsel incompetently failed to conduct any pretrial discovery. Had counsel conducted discovery, he would have known that the police had seized a
Petitioners, the Attorney General of New Jersey and the Superintendent of Rahway State Prison, argue that because this claim depends on a violation of the Fourth Amendment, the claim cannot be heard by a federal court on habeas corpus. Petitioners’ argument rests on Stone v. Powell, supra, in which we held that Fourth Amendment claims are not cognizable on federal habeas corpus as long as the State provided a full and fair opportunity to litigate those claims in state court.
The Court properly rejects petitioners’ argument. Stone‘s holding derives from two propositions, neither of which applies to a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel. First, we reasoned in Stone that the exclusionary rule does not exist to remedy any wrong committed against the defendant, but rather to deter violations of the Fourth Amendment by law enforcement personnel. Id., at 486-489. Second, we concluded that collateral review of Fourth Amendment claims would add little to the exclusionary rule‘s deterrent value, but would entail significant costs to federal-state relations and particularly to the public interest in convicting and punishing the guilty. Id., at 493-495.
Ineffective-assistance claims stand on a different footing. As Strickland makes clear, the right to effective assistance of counsel is personal to the defendant, and is explicitly tied to
Nor is it possible to conclude that, since the only claimed prejudice is the admission of the illegally seized bedsheet, respondent‘s claim actually is a Fourth Amendment claim barred by Stone directly. As Strickland teaches, the right to effective assistance of counsel ensures that defendants have a fair opportunity to contest the charges against them. A defendant has a valid ineffective-assistance claim whenever he has been denied that opportunity, regardless of the law on which counsel‘s error is based. It follows that respondent‘s claim must be judged as a Sixth Amendment claim, according to the standards set forth in Strickland, and not as a Fourth Amendment claim governed by Stone.1
Applying Strickland, respondent must show both that his counsel fell below basic standards of competence and that he was sufficiently prejudiced by the resulting errors. Strickland, 466 U. S., at 687. Petitioners contend that trial counsel‘s errors were not egregious enough to satisfy Strickland‘s performance prong. In addition, they argue that the trial judge‘s comments at a bail hearing constitute a factual finding that those errors were not prejudicial. The Court correctly finds that both arguments are mistaken. This holding disposes of the only claims petitioners make with respect to the legal standards for ineffective-assistance claims.
There is a far more serious argument that petitioners do not make, and that no court in this case has addressed. Respondent‘s sole claim of prejudice stems from the admission of evidence that is concededly reliable although arguably inadmissible under Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U. S. 643 (1961), and its progeny. The parties and the courts below have assumed that if the evidence in question was in fact inadmissible, and if there is a “reasonable probability” that its use at trial affected the verdict, Strickland‘s prejudice prong is satisfied. Cf. Strickland, 466 U. S., at 695. In my view, that assumption is not justified. In Strickland we emphasized that ineffective-assistance claims were designed to protect defendants against fundamental unfairness. “The Sixth Amendment recognizes the right to the assistance of counsel because it envisions counsel‘s playing a role that is critical to the ability of the adversarial system to produce just results.” Id., at 685. See also id., at 686 (“The benchmark for judging any claim of ineffectiveness must be whether counsel‘s conduct so undermined the proper functioning of the adversarial process that the trial cannot be relied on as having produced a
“A number of practical considerations are important for the application of the standards we have outlined. Most important, in adjudicating a claim of actual ineffectiveness of counsel, a court should keep in mind that the principles we have stated do not establish mechanical rules. Although those principles should guide the process of decision, the ultimate focus of inquiry must be on the fundamental fairness of the proceeding whose result is being challenged. In every case the court should be concerned with whether, despite the strong presumption of reliability, the result of the particular proceeding is unreliable because of a breakdown in the adversarial process that our system counts on to produce just results.” Id., at 696 (emphasis added).
This reasoning strongly suggests that only errors that call into question the basic justice of the defendant‘s conviction suffice to establish prejudice under Strickland. The question, in sum, must be whether the particular harm suffered by the defendant due to counsel‘s incompetence rendered the defendant‘s trial fundamentally unfair. See id., at 687 (prejudice “requires [a] showing that counsel‘s errors were so serious as to deprive the defendant of a fair trial, a trial whose result is reliable“).2
Common sense reinforces this conclusion. As we emphasized only last Term, and as the Court recognizes again today, ante, at 379-380, “[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.” Evitts v. Lucey, 469 U. S. 387, 394 (1985) (emphasis added), quoting Herring v. New York, 422 U. S. 853, 862 (1975). The right
I nevertheless do not vote to reverse the Court of Appeals, because neither the parties nor the courts below have considered the question I raise here. Nor do the questions presented in the petition for certiorari encompass this aspect of Strickland‘s application.4 I raise the issue only because the Court‘s rhetoric might mistakenly be read to answer a question that has not been asked. E. g., ante, at 380 (“[W]e decline to hold either that the guarantee of effective assistance of counsel belongs solely to the innocent or that it attaches only to matters affecting the determination of actual guilt“). Courts and litigants should not be deceived by such pronouncements. Notwithstanding its broad language, the Court explicitly recognizes that the general applicability of Strickland in this context has not been discussed by the parties, ante, at 380, and limits itself to holding that the right to effective assistance of counsel is equally enforceable on direct
Because I agree that Stone v. Powell does not govern this case, I concur in the judgment. I leave the application of Strickland‘s prejudice prong to claims such as this one to another day.