Argument of Speaker
Mr. Speaker: The opinion of the Court in No. 01-1559 Massaro against United States will be announced by Justice Kennedy.
Argument of Justice Kennedy
Mr. Kennedy: The United States Court of Appeals are divided on the rules pertaining to those convicted of federal crimes who wish to raise claims of ineffective assistance of counsel.
Some courts insisted it would be done only on collateral review, others the Second and Seventh Circuits hold that in some instances an ineffective assistance claim is procedurally defaulted if it is not brought on direct appeal.
Those Circuits hold that the claim must be brought on the direct appeal if the basis for it appears in the trial record and the appellate counsel is new counsel i.e. not the trial counsel.
We think the better rule is to allow the claim to be brought on collateral review in all instances.
Our opinion set forth various reasons which can best be summarized as explaining that our rule permits the most efficient allocation of judicial resources.
So, we adopt the rule of the majority of Circuits and we reverse the judgment in this case which comes from the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
We do note that counsels are not precluded from raising ineffective assistance claims on direct review and that an appellate court may note ineffectiveness sua sponte but they are not required to do so.
The opinion is unanimous.
