Page:Gilberto Garza, Jr. v. Idaho.pdf/7

4 U. S. 648, 659 (1984), or left “entirely without the assistance of counsel on appeal,” Penson v. Ohio, 488 U. S. 75, 88 (1988). Similarly, prejudice is presumed “if counsel entirely fails to subject the prosecution’s case to meaningful adversarial testing.” Cronic, 466 U. S., at 659. And, most relevant here, prejudice is presumed “when counsel’s constitutionally deficient performance deprives a defendant of an appeal that he otherwise would have taken.” Flores-Ortega, 528 U. S., at 484. We hold today that this final presumption applies even when the defendant has signed an appeal waiver.

It is helpful, in analyzing Garza’s case, to first address two procedural devices on which the case hinges: appeal waivers and notices of appeal.

We begin with the term “appeal waivers.” While the term is useful shorthand for clauses like those in Garza’s plea agreements, it can misleadingly suggest a monolithic end to all appellate rights. In fact, however, no appeal waiver serves as an absolute bar to all appellate claims.

As courts widely agree, “[a] valid and enforceable appeal waiver… only precludes challenges that fall within its scope.” United States v. Hardman, 778 F. 3d 896, 899 (CA11 2014); see also ibid., n. 2 (collecting cases from the