Martinez v. Court of Appeal of California Fourth App. Dist.

• Decision Date: 12 January 2000
• Docket Number: 987809
• Citation: 528 U.S. 152,120 S.Ct. 684,145 L.Ed.2d 597
• Parties: SALVADOR MARTINEZ, PETITIONER v. COURT OF APPEAL OF CALIFORNIA, FOURTH APPELLATE DISTRICTSupreme Court of the United States
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

528 U.S. 152

120 S.Ct. 684

145 L.Ed.2d 597

SALVADOR MARTINEZ, PETITIONER v COURT OF APPEAL OF CALIFORNIA, FOURTH APPELLATE DISTRICT

No. 98-7809

Supreme Court of the United States

Argued November 9, 1999

Decided January 12, 2000

Syllabus

Accused of converting a client's money to his own use while employed as a paralegal, petitioner Martinez was charged by California with grand theft and the fraudulent appropriation of another's property. He chose to represent himself at trial before a jury, which acquitted him of theft but convicted him of embezzlement. He then filed a timely notice of appeal, a motion to represent himself, and a waiver of counsel. The California Court of Appeal denied his motion to represent himself based on its prior holding that there is no constitutional right to self-representation on direct appeal under Faretta v. California, 422 U. S. 806 , in which this Court held that a criminal defendant has a constitutional right to conduct his own defense at trial when he voluntarily and intelligently elects to proceed without counsel, id., at 807, 836. The state court had explained that the right to counsel on appeal stems from the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment, not from the Sixth Amendment on which Faretta was based, and held that the denial of self-representation at this level does not violate due process or equal protection. The California Supreme Court denied Martinez' application for a writ of mandate.

Held: Neither Faretta 's holding nor its reasoning requires a State to recognize a constitutional right to self-representation on direct appeal from a criminal conviction. Although some of Faretta 's reasoning is applicable to appellate proceedings as well as to trials, there are significant distinctions. First, the historical evidence Faretta relied on as identifying a right of self-representation, 422 U. S., at 812 -817, is not useful here because it pertained to times when lawyers were scarce, often mistrusted, and not readily available to the average person accused of crime, whereas it has since been recognized that every indigent defendant in a criminal trial has a constitutional right to the assistance of appointed counsel, see Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U. S. 335 . Moreover, unlike the right recognized in Faretta, the historical evidence does not provide any support for an affirmative constitutional right to appellate self-representation. Second, Faretta 's reliance on the Sixth Amendment's structure interpreted in light of its English and colonial background, 422 U. S., at 818-832, is not relevant here. Because the Amendment deals strictly with trial rights and does not include any right to appeal, see Abney v. United States, 431 U. S. 651, 656 , it necessarily follows that the Amendment itself does not provide any basis for finding a right to appellate self-representation. Faretta' s inquiries into historical English practices, 422 U. S., at 821 -824, do not provide a basis for extending that case to the appellate process because there was no appeal from a criminal conviction in England until 1907. Third, although Faretta 's conclusion that a knowing and intelligent waiver of the right to trial counsel must be honored out of respect for individual autonomy, id., at 834, is also applicable in the appellate context, this Court has recognized that the right is not absolute, see id., at 835. Given the Court's conclusion that the Sixth Amendment does not apply to appellate proceedings, any individual right to self-representation on appeal based on autonomy principles must be grounded in the Due Process Clause. Under the practices prevailing in the Nation today, the Court is entirely unpersuaded that the risk of disloyalty by a court-appointed attorney, or the suspicion of such disloyalty, that underlies the constitutional right of self-representation at trial, see id., at 834, is a sufficient concern to conclude that such a right is a necessary component of a fair appellate proceeding. The States are clearly within their discretion to conclude that the government's interests in ensuring the integrity and efficiency of the appellate process outweigh an invasion of the appellant's interest in self-representation, although the Court's narrow holding does not preclude the States from recognizing a constitutional right to appellate self-representation under their own constitutions. Pp. 3-12. Affirmed.

On writ of certiorari to the supreme court of california

Stevens, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which Rehnquist, C. J., and O'Connor, Kennedy, Souter, Thomas, Ginsburg, and Breyer, JJ., joined. Kennedy, J., and Breyer, J., filed concurring opinions. Scalia, J., filed an opinion concurring in the judgment.

Justice Stevens delivered the opinion of the Court.

The Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments of our Constitution guarantee that a person brought to trial in any state or federal court must be afforded the right to the assistance of counsel before he can be validly convicted and punished by imprisonment.¹ In Faretta v. California, 422 U. S. 806 (1975), we decided that the defendant also "has a constitutional right to proceed without counsel when he voluntarily and intelligently elects to do so." Id., at 807. Although that statement arguably embraces the entire judicial proceeding, we also phrased the question as whether a State may "constitutionally hale a person into its criminal courts and there force a lawyer upon him, even when he insists that he wants to conduct his own defense." Ibid. Our conclusion in Faretta extended only to a defendant's "constitutional right to conduct his own defense." Id., at 836. Accordingly, our specific holding was confined to the right to defend oneself at trial. We now address the different question whether the reasoning in support of that holding also applies when the defendant becomes an appellant and assumes the burden of persuading a reviewing court that the conviction should be reversed. We have concluded that it does not.

I

Martinez describes himself as a self-taught paralegal with 25 years' experience at 12 different law firms. See App. 13. While employed as an office assistant at a firm in Santa Ana, California, Martinez was accused of converting $6,000 of a client's money to his own use. He was charged in a two-count information with grand theft and the fraudulent appropriation of the property of another. He chose to represent himself at trial before a jury, because he claimed " `there wasn't an attorney on earth who'd believe me once he saw my past [criminal record].' " Id., at 15. The jury acquitted him on Count 1, grand theft, but convicted him on Count 2, embezzlement. The jury also found that he had three prior convictions; accordingly, under California's "three strikes" law, the court imposed a mandatory sentence of 25-years-to-life in prison. See Cal. Penal Code 667(d) and (e)(2) (West 1999). Martinez filed a timely notice of appeal as well as a motion to represent himself and a waiver of counsel. The California Court of Appeal denied his motion, and the California Supreme Court denied his application for a writ of mandate. While the California Supreme Court did not issue an opinion in this case, the Court of Appeal previously had explained:

"There is no constitutional right to self-representation on the initial appeal as of right. The right to counsel on appeal stems from the due process and equal protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment, not from the Sixth Amendment, which is the foundation on which Faretta is based. The denial of self-representation at this level does not violate due process or equal protection guarantees." People v. Scott , 64 Cal. App. 4th 550, 554, 75 Cal. Rptr. 2d 315, 318 (1998).

We granted certiorari because Martinez has raised a question on which both state and federal courts have expressed conflicting views.² 526 U. S. 1064 (1999). We now affirm.

II

The Faretta majority based its conclusion on three inter-related arguments. First, it examined historical evidence identifying a right of self-representation that had been protected by federal and state law since the beginning of our Nation, 422 U. S., at 812 -817. Second, it interpreted the structure of the Sixth Amendment, in the light of its English and colonial background, id., at 818-832. Third, it concluded that even though it "is undeniable that in most criminal prosecutions defendants could better defend with counsel's guidance than by their own unskilled efforts," a knowing and intelligent waiver "must be honored out of `that respect for the individual which is the lifeblood of the law.' Illinois v. Allen, 397 U. S. 337, 350-351 [(1970)]." Faretta , 422 U. S., at 834 . Some of the Court's reasoning is applicable to appellate proceedings as well as to trials. There are, however, significant distinctions.

The historical evidence relied upon by Faretta as identifying a right of self-representation is not always useful because it pertained to times when lawyers were scarce, often mistrusted, and not readily available to the average person accused of crime.³ For one who could not obtain a lawyer, self-representation was the only feasible alternative to asserting no defense at all. Thus, a government's recognition of an indigent defendant's right to represent himself was comparable to bestowing upon the homeless beggar a "right" to take shelter in the sewers of Paris. Not surprisingly, early precedent demonstrates that this "right" was not always used to the defendant's advantage as a shield, but rather was often employed by the prosecution as a sword. The principal case cited in Faretta is illustrative. In Adams v. United States ex rel. McCann, 317 U. S. 269 (1942), the Court relied on the existence of the right of self-representation as the basis for finding that an unrepresented defendant had waived his right to a trial by jury.⁴

It has since been recognized, however, that an indigent defend...