In Massaro v. United States, 538 U.S. 500 (2003), this Court held that a convicted federal defendant may first bring an ineffective assistance of counsel claim in a collateral proceeding under §2255, regardless of whether the defendant could have raised the claim on direct appeal (overruling Billy-Eko v. United States, 8 F.3d 111 (2d Cir. 1993)). The question is whether Massaro v. United States, 538 U.S. 500 (2003) requires, as the First Circuit indicated, that a defendant with an arguably meritorious ineffective assistance of counsel claim must proceed under §2255, despite the fact that under CJA plans, a court is not required to appoint counsel for a collateral proceedings, and if Massaro requires resort to a collateral proceeding, whether the Sixth Amendment requires assigned counsel to assist him in pursuing his ineffective assistance of counsel remedy.

Whether Massaro v. United States requires a defendant to proceed under §2255 for an ineffective assistance of counsel claim, and if so, whether the Sixth Amendment requires appointed counsel to assist in pursuing that remedy