In re Flannery

CORRECTED OPINION

The Sixth Amendment’s guarantee of effective assistance of appellate counsel, see Evitts v. Lucey, 469 U.S. 387, 105 S.Ct. 830, 83 L.Ed.2d 821 (1985), requires that defense attorneys in criminal cases prosecute appeals vigorously and diligently. See United States v. Gerrity, 804 F.2d 1330, 1331 (7th Cir.1986) (per curiam) (“The [criminal] defendants, often imprisoned while their appeals are pending, depend on their attorneys to prosecute their appeals vigorously....”). The vigorous prosecution of an appeal requires minimally the filing of a main appellate brief. Each of the…