Court Opinion

ID: 9468661
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 02:20:17.238826+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:40:58.864494
License: Public Domain

*616GARWOOD, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
I concur in all of Judge Roney’s opinion. I wish, however, to emphasize that following an evidentiary hearing the federal district court has found on the basis of adequate evidence that Petitioner, after the requests and motion to represent himself were made and before any ruling thereon by the state trial judge, resolved his differences with his appointed lawyer and “requested him to continue the representation,” which resolution and request the lawyer then communicated to the state trial judge, who “therefore, either denied the motion or considered it to be abandoned.” Though Petitioner’s subsequent acquiescence in continued representation by counsel is corroborative of the evidence that he in fact requested counsel to continue to act on his behalf, I would be reluctant to hold that such acquiescence of itself waived his earlier clearly asserted right of self-representation. However, since Petitioner did in fact request continued representation by his appointed counsel, the substance of his rights has in fact been protected. While it would surely be efficient and otherwise desirable to have the facts in this regard more formally memorialized in the state court proceedings, not everything which is desirable or efficient is therefore constitutionally required; and where the relevant facts are adequately otherwise proved I cannot hold that the mere lack of memorialization gives Petitioner a constitutional right to another trial when it has been sufficiently established that he in fact was afforded all the representational rights to which he was entitled under the Constitution.