Procedure for filing indigent Appeal against conviction.

Mississippi Rule of Appellate Procedure 28(a)(1)-(4) & (7) governs Appeals on behalf of indigent persons.

Fourteenth Amendment right to appellate counsel:

In Smith v. Robbins, 528 U.S. 259, 273-74, 120 S.Ct. 746, 145 L.Ed.2d 756 (2000), the United States Supreme Court, speaking through Justice Thomas, stated that although the Court had previously laid down a “prophylactic framework” to vindicate the Fourteenth Amendment right to appellate counsel, it “expressly disclaimed any pretensions to rulemaking authority for the States in the area of indigent criminal appeals.” Instead, the Court stated, “States may — and, we are confident, will — craft procedures that, in terms of policy, are superior to, or at least as good as” the framework the Court introduced in Anders v. California, 386 U.S.*746 738, 87 S.Ct. 1396, 18 L.Ed.2d 493 (1967), and Douglas v. California, 372 U.S. 353, 83 S.Ct. 814, 9 L.Ed.2d 811 (1963).

¶ 10. Before reviewing California’s procedure, the Court stated,

[I]t is important to focus on the underlying goals that the procedure should serve — to ensure that those indigents whose appeals are not frivolous receive the counsel and merits brief required byDouglas, and also to enable the State to `protect itself so that frivolous appeals are not subsidized and public moneys are not needlessly spent.’ . . . For although, under Douglas, indigents generally have a right to counsel on a first appeal as of right, it is equally true that this right does not include the right to bring a frivolous appeal and, concomitantly, does not include the right to counsel for bringing a frivolous appeal.

The result of above case was laying of following procedure by Supreme Court of Missisipi in Turner v. State, 818 So.2d 1186:

The appellate counsel must:

(1) determine that the defendant is “unlikely to prevail on appeal.”

(2) file a brief indicating “that he scoured the record thoroughly[,]” and “refer[] to anything in the record that might arguably support the appeal[,]” and

(3) advise client of his right to file a pro se supplemental brief.

At this point, the appellate court shall then make its own independent review of the record, in the manner followed in all other cases.

 The above procedure resulted in every appeal being a “no brief”:

Continue reading “What is Lindsey Brief in American Law?” →