Opinion ID: 1479679
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: Lack of Counsel

Text: Defendant Long argues that the indictment should be dismissed on the ground that he had been denied his right to counsel as guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution and art. I, sec. 10, of the Rhode Island Constitution and Rule 44 of the Superior Court Rules of Criminal Procedure. [2] See State v. Cabral, 122 R.I. 623, 628, 410 A.2d 438, 442 (1980); State v. Delahunt, 121 R.I. 565, 571-72, 401 A.2d 1261, 1265 (1979). Defendant Long, however, does not claim that he was forced to proceed to trial without adequate counsel, nor does he claim that he was without counsel during any critical stage of the prosecution. Instead he focuses upon a five-and-one-half-month period between May and September of 1982 during which no attorney was on record as appearing on his behalf. The record reveals that this lack of counsel is attributable to defendant Long himself and not to the state. The two attorneys who represented defendant Long before this five-and-one-half-month gap withdrew because they found Long to be uncooperative. When asked by the trial justice if he wanted an attorney appointed for him, defendant suggested that his family was attempting to find private counsel to represent him. Five months later, defendant filed a new motion for appointed counsel and received one within a week. See State v. Austin, R.I., 462 A.2d 359, 366 (1983). Because defendant is responsible for this gap and because defendant can point to nothing prejudicial that occurred during this time, we hold that the trial justice correctly denied defendant Long's motion to dismiss for lack of counsel.