Alvord v. Wainwright, 83-6807

• Decision Date: 29 October 1984
• Docket Number: No. 83-6807,83-6807
• Citation: 105 S.Ct. 355,469 U.S. 956,83 L.Ed.2d 291
• Parties: Gary Eldon ALVORD v. Louie L. WAINWRIGHT, Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

469 U.S. 956

105 S.Ct. 355

83 L.Ed.2d 291

Gary Eldon ALVORD

v Louie L. WAINWRIGHT, Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections

No. 83-6807

Supreme Court of the United States

October 29, 1984

On petition for writ of certiorari to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.

The petition for a writ of certiorari is denied.

Justice MARSHALL, with whom Justice BRENNAN joins, dissenting.

This petition asks us to consider whether an attorney renders effective assistance of counsel when he forgoes all investigation into his client's only plausible line of defense and defers to his client's wishes on defense strategy, without any regard for the client's knowledge of, or ability to understand, the law, the facts, or the ramifications of the decision.

The question could scarcely be more starkly posed. The petitioner here had previously been adjudicated insane at a criminal trial, and his reasoning faculties were therefore highly suspect. Yet appointed counsel accepted his client's initial refusal to rely on the insanity defense, made no independent investigation of his client's mental or criminal history, learned no facts that would enable him to persuade his client to change his mind, and instead permitted his client to rely on an unsupported alibi that all acknowledged to have been, at best, weak. The lower court approved this course of conduct on the ground that the client was found competent to stand trial and therefore was entitled to have his wishes followed. Because I believe the lower court decision seriously misconstrues the constitutional role of a criminal defense lawyer, I would grant certiorari to review the decision.

I

The record demonstrates unequivocally that Gary Alvord has a long history of mental illness. He first entered a mental hospital at age 13. In 1967, he was charged in Michigan with rape and murder; he spent two years in a mental hospital and was then declared competent to stand trial. At a bench trial, he was found not guilty by reason of insanity and was committed to the custody of the Michigan Department of Mental Health. After escaping from the Ionia State Hospital in Michigan, he traveled to Florida, where he committed the three murders for which he received the death sentence in Florida.

Counsel, a part-time public defender, was appointed to represent Alvord after his indictment in 1973. Alvord refused to talk to the lawyer; instead, it was the prosecutor who told counsel that Alvord had been adjudicated not guilty by reason of insanity in Michigan. Counsel moved for a mental examination, and two psychiatrists were directed to conduct the examination. Ultimately, the trial judge ruled that Alvord was competent to stand trial.¹

Appointed counsel saw Alvord for about 15 minutes after Alvord was indicted. Counsel's subsequent pretrial contact with his client was primarily at court hearings. According to the Court of Appeals, Alvord's counsel conducted no independent investigation into Alvord's history of mental illness. He did not contact doctors, other than one brought in by the State to interview Alvord, see n. 1, supra, at the Michigan hospital where Alvord had spent considerable time, and he only obtained a small portion of Alvord's medical record. He made no effort to have that portion of the medical record examined and interpreted by a psychiatrist. He did not offer to the court any document or testimony indicating that Alvord had previously been adjudicated incompetent, even after the trial judge observed that no such evidence was presented. Nor did he raise at trial the presumption of insanity afforded Alvord under Florida law, because of his prior adjudication of insanity, the effect of which would have been to place the burden of proof on the prosecution to prove sanity beyond a reasonable doubt.² Nor, apparently, did counsel even inform Alvord of this legal principle and its potential consequences. Finally, counsel apparently did not contact the attorney who represented Alvord during the Michigan prosecution, who would have told him that Alvord initially had been disinclined to assist in his best defense there as well, until he had come to trust counsel.³ "In short, [counsel] undertook virtually no investigation of the one defense [counsel himself] considered viable in Alvord's case, choosing instead to comply with Alvord's request that he put petitioner on the stand and proceed with an alibi defense." 564 F.Supp. 459, 471 (MD Fla.1983). The lower court opinions and findings establish that counsel made absolutely no effort to pursue the possibility of an insanity defense, after his unstable client's uneducated objection to the possibility, but instead unquestioningly accepted his client's direction to pursue a frivolous alibi defense.

The federal habeas court rejected Alvord's claim on the ground that counsel acted reasonably in deciding that it would be useless to pursue an insanity defense because Alvord would not cooperate. Id., at 473-474. This argument wholly misses the mark. The question is whether counsel had a duty to investigate his client's case and make a minimal effort to persuade him to follow the only plausible defense. The question is not whether counsel has a duty to override his client's wishes, or pursue fruitless investigations, thereafter. The Court of Appeals adopted the District Court's reasoning and also observed that Alvord had been found competent to stand trial—in part because counsel had failed to present to the court evidence of the prior insanity adjudication—and that counsel "was ethically bound to follow his client's wishes" as a result. 725 F.2d 1282, 1289 (CA11 1984). This holding is the crux of the decision. With this ruling, the Eleventh Circuit has loudly and clearly signalled that counsel need not question a client's decisions on crucial trial issues as long as the client is found competent to stand trial, even if counsel's professional judgment suggests to him that an alternative decision would be in the client's best interests.

II

It is crucial to recognize precisely what is at issue here. The lower courts in this case have interpreted our decisions to hold that counsel has absolutely no obligation to investigate, at all, the only plausible defense a defendant might have, and no obligation to provide advice on that issue, once the defendant indicates a desire not to pursue that defense, even when the client's reasoning faculties are highly suspect. The decision establishes that absolute deference to the uninformed reaction of a defendant is acceptable, and that counsel's decision not to pursue the issue and make an attempt to persuade his client is reasonable.

This result renders meaningless defense counsel's vital function as an adviser. Counsel must ensure that the client has access to information relevant to the pretrial and trial decisions that the accused must make himself, such as whether to testify on his own behalf, to waive a jury trial, or to plead guilty.⁴ Each of these decisions involves the waiver of a constitutional right and must be made by the accused, but with the advice of counsel. Counsel's role is to provide advice that will assure not only that the waiver is voluntary and intelligent, but also that the accused is reasonably well informed. See McMann v. Richardson, 397 U.S. 759, 769-770, 90 S.Ct. 1441, 1448, 25 L.Ed.2d 763 (1970). Thus, if pursuit of an insanity defense is a decision to be made by the accused, it must be done on the advice of a well-informed attorney who has assured that his client has based his decision on relevant information.⁵

Of course the need for assistance of counsel extends well beyond assistance in deciding whether to waive constitutional rights. The Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments embody "a realistic recognition of the obvious truth that the average defendant does not have the professional legal skill to protect himself when brought before a tribunal with power to take his life or liberty, wherein the prosecution is presented by experienced and learned counsel." Johnson v. Zerbst, 304 U.S. 458, 462-463, 58 S.Ct. 1019, 1022, 82 L.Ed. 1461 (1938). Thus, counsel is authorized to make certain choices for his client, after consultation with the client, during which counsel, who is fully informed of the facts, discusses the options with his client. As this Court has noted, "[w]ith the exception of [the three] specified fundamental decisions [involving waiver of constitutional rights], an attorney's duty is to take professional responsibility for the conduct of the case, after consulting with his client." Jones v. Barnes, 463 U.S. 745, 753, n. 6, 103 S.Ct. 3308, 3313, n. 6, 77 L.Ed.2d 987 (1983). When counsel is obliged to make the decision himself, blind deference to a client's wishes, without any investigation, is unquestionably inappropriate and constitutionally ineffective.

Thus, regardless of whether the ultimate decision on an insanity defense is that of the attorney or his client, counsel must fully inform himself of the facts and law, make a reasonable investigation into the only plausible line of defense, and share his conclusions with his client. This is the essence of effective assistance of counsel. This conclusion, which I would have thought to have been well ingrained in our Sixth Amendment jurisprudence, is wholly at odds with the view that a lawyer reasonably may assume that his client—no matter what his training or mental capacity—has based his decision on sufficient information and knowledge as to render the lawyer's further effort unnecessary. To my mind, such total deference is only proper, if at all, when cou...