United States v. Paul M. Gerrity, United States of America v. Thomas Ponchik

The criminal defense bar has a special responsibility to its clients and to this court. The defendants, often imprisoned while their appeals are pending, depend on their attorneys to prosecute their appeals vigorously; the sixth amendment’s guarantee of effective assistance of counsel on direct appeal, Evitts v. Lucey, 469 U.S. 387, 105 S.Ct. 830, 83 L.Ed.2d 821 (1985), requires no less. And we rely on counsel to present criminal cases to us in a timely fashion because we schedule oral argument in direct criminal appeals expeditiously.

The defense attorneys in these two cases have shirked…