Commonwealth v. Turner

In Commonwealth v. Turner, 518 Pa. 491, 544 A.2d 927 (1988), the Pennsylvania Supreme Court adopted a less stringent standard for the withdrawal of appointed counsel from cases in which the right to counsel does not derive from the United States Constitution, such as collateral appeals. The Court held that, rather than an Anders brief, counsel may instead provide a "no-merit" letter which details "the nature and extent of the attorney's review and lists each issue the petitioner wished to have raised, with counsel's explanation of why those issues are meritless," at which point the court must conduct its own review of whether the claim is meritless. Id. at 494-95, 544 A.2d at 928.