U.S. v. Battle, 97-9027

• Citation: 163 F.3d 1
• Decision Date: 18 February 1998
• Docket Number: No. 97-9027,97-9027
• Parties: 12 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. C 339 UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Anthony George BATTLE, Defendant-Appellant. . Eleventh Circuit
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit

Page 1

163 F.3d 1

12 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. C 339

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Anthony George BATTLE, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 97-9027.

United States Court of Appeals.

Eleventh Circuit.

Feb. 18, 1998.

John R. Martin, Martin Brothers, P.C., and Stephanie Kearns, Federal Defender Program, Inc., Atlanta, GA, for Defendant-Appellant.

William L. McKinnon, Jr. and Janice K. Jenkins, Assistant U.S. Attorneys, Atlanta, GA, for Plaintiff-Appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.

Before HATCHETT, Chief Judge, and EDMONDSON and BLACK, Circuit Judges.

BY THE COURT:

Appellant's "motion for reconsideration of denial of motion to file a seventy-five [the first motion was for eighty pages] page brief and to accept seventy-five page brief" is DENIED.

Even in a death-penalty case, the court expects counsel to be highly selective about the issues to be argued on appeal and about the number of words used to press those issues. Counsel in this case remind us that they are experienced and capable lawyers. We believe it. But we are experienced and, we hope, capable judges. This case is not for any of us the first case involving a death penalty; deciding such cases is our business.

We do not understand a limitation on the number of pages in a brief to be a blow against an appellant's case or an act that undercuts effective advocacy. To the contrary, we see reasonable limitations of pages to be a help to good advocacy by directing busy lawyers to sharpen and to simplify their arguments in a way that--as experience has taught us--makes cases stronger, not weaker.

Our views on what constitutes effective advocacy are not heretical. Justice Story wrote these words: "Who's a great lawyer? He, who aims to say the least his cause requires, not all he may." Joseph Story Memorandum-book of arguments before the Supreme Court, 1831-32, in Life and Letters of Joseph Story 2:90 (William W. Story ed. 1851). Justice Holmes once said, "One has to try to strike the jugular and let the rest go." Oliver Wendell Holmes, Speeches 77 (1934).

The Supreme Court of the United States has also stressed in its opinions that the best advocacy relies on selectivity. It is well settled that counsel need not "raise every 'colorable' claim" on appeal. Jones v. Barnes, 463 U.S. 745, 103 S.Ct. 3308, 3314, 77 L.Ed.2d 987 (1983). The Supreme Court wrote, "Most cases present only one, two, or three significant questions.... Usually, ... if you cannot win on a few major points, the others are not likely to help,...." Jones at 3313 (quoting R. Stern, Appellate Practice in the United States 266 (1981)). And, the former Chief Judge of this circuit, John C. Godbold, has given this advice: "[C]ounsel must select with dispassionate and detached mind the issues that common sense and experience tell him are likely to be dispositive. He must reject other issues or give them short treatment." John C. Godbold, Twenty Pages and Twenty Minutes Revisited 14 (1987) (revised version of Twenty Pages and Twenty Minutes--Effective Advocacy on Appeal, 30 Sw. L.J. 801 (1976)). Counsel, in...