Opinion ID: 3050723
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Right to Substitute Jordan on January 7, 1999

Text: Under the Sixth Amendment, a defendant who does not require appointed counsel has the right to choose who will represent him. See Wheat v. United States, 486 U.S. 153, 159 (1988); see also United States v. Gonzales-Lopez, 126 S.Ct. 2557, 2561 (2006). However, this right is not absolute. A trial court has wide latitude in balancing the right against the need to avoid conflicts of interest, the need to manage its calendar, and the need to ensure that the trial is conducted within ethical standards. Gonzales-Lopez, 126 S.Ct. at 2565-66; see also United States v. Kelm, 827 F.2d 1319, 1322 (9th Cir. 1987) (“[A] court must be wary against the ‘right of counsel’ being used as a ploy to gain time or effect delay.”). Jordan was not hired by Bradley or being paid by her, but by her father. Such a dynamic had caused numerous delays in the past. Jordan attempted to assuage the court’s concerns, but as the California Court of Appeal found, “those assurances were not as definitive as Bradley portrays them.” For example, Jordan said that “[he saw] no reason” not to be ready for trial and “[didn’t] see that changing at this point” (emphasis added). He similarly qualified his assurances about his financial relationship with the client, noting that it “[was] not a concern at this point” (emphasis added). The California Court of Appeal also noted Jordan’s limited preparation in the case 1 It is also significant to note that Bradley did not seek an evidentiary hearing in the California courts to substantiate these factual allegations. See 28 U.S.C. § 2254(e)(2); see also Williams v. Taylor, 529 U.S. 420, 436-37 (2000). 16530 BRADLEY v. HENRY at the time of the motion. Although he had met with Bradley’s family, a former investigator on the case, and Bradley herself, he had not had reviewed any of the twelve boxes of case materials, yet the trial was only a month away. Faced with these concerns, the trial court denied the motion, finding that “in spite of the comments and [intentions] and current offers of counsel, there is significant and I do believe determinative danger of delay in substituting counsel at this point.” The California Court of Appeal held: “Given the magnitude of the accumulated materials, the paucity of Jordan’s preparations and the fact that the special circumstances allegation had not yet been dismissed, Jordan’s equivocal assurances of readiness were clearly inadequate.” In light of the nearly three-year pretrial history of unrelenting problems with counsel and the continuances they caused, the state court’s ruling was not contrary to or an unreasonable application of Wheat. See 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d)(1). As the California Court of Appeal found, given the complexity and severity of the criminal charges, the trial court’s skepticism of Jordan’s assurances that he would be ready for trial in a month was not without basis. The same goes for the trial court’s refusal to allow Jordan to associate as co-counsel with Andrian. The California Court of Appeal was not unreasonable in holding that Jordan’s proposed role as co-counsel was a recipe for conflict with existing counsel that could be expected to result in still more delay. The trial court had a duty to protect Bradley’s right to counsel, but it also had a duty to bring this case to trial. In the face of challenging circumstances, the state court reasonably discharged both of these duties. The decision to do so was adequately supported by the record before us and the determination by the California Court of Appeal that any error in excluding Bradley from the chambers conference was harmless is not objectively unreasonable under AEDPA. I would affirm the district court.