United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Lozada v. Deeds, 498 U.S. 430 (1991)

Lozada v. Deeds

No. 90-5393

Decided Feb. 19, 1991

498 U.S. 430

Syllabus

Petitioner Lozada failed to file a direct appeal from his Nevada state court convictions. After exhausting state postconviction remedies, he filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in the Federal District Court, alleging that he had been deprived of the opportunity to appeal his convictions by the ineffective assistance of his counsel, who, inter alia, never told him of his right to appeal. The court dismissed the petition, holding that Lozada's allegations failed to show prejudice under the standard set forth in Strickland v. Washington, 466 U. S. 668, because Lozada had not demonstrated that an appeal might have succeeded. Subsequently, both the District Court and the Court of Appeals denied Lozada a certificate of probable cause to appeal the dismissal of his petition.

Held: The Court of Appeals erred in denying Lozada a certificate of probable cause because, under the standards set forth in Barefoot v. Estelle, 463 U. S. 880, 463 U. S. 893, for issuance of a certificate, he made a substantial showing that he was denied the right to effective assistance of counsel. The issue of prejudice could be resolved in a different manner than the one followed by the District Court. At least two Courts of Appeals have presumed prejudice by the denial of the right to appeal, yet the Court of Appeals in the instant case neither cited nor analyzed this line of authority.

Certiorari granted; reversed and remanded.