Court Opinion

ID: 9519982
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 01:28:43.652745+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:45:25.303662
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE STEIGMANN, specially concurring: I agree with the majority opinion, but write separately to emphasize that the primary error the trial court committed in this case was its apparent belief that defendant had only two choices: hire a lawyer or represent himself. Reversible error will almost always occur when a trial court forces a defendant (whom the court has found to be nonindigent and who has asked to be represented by counsel) to proceed pro se because the court will not appoint counsel to represent him and defendant has failed, willfully or not, to hire counsel of his own choice. Under these circumstances, no legitimate waiver of Rule 401 can occur because the rule requires a defendant’s knowing, intelligent, and voluntary waiver of his right to be represented by counsel. When a defendant insists on being represented by counsel but claims to be unable to afford an attorney of his own choice, Rule 401 simply does not apply. Rule 401 lacks the explicit provision concerning voluntariness found in Rule 402, which addresses guilty pleas. See 177 Ill. 2d R. 402(b). Nonetheless, because Rule 401 deals with a fundamental constitutional right, it implicitly requires that any waiver of that right must be voluntary. In addressing waivers by defendants of their right to counsel, many courts have recognized that voluntariness is required. In People v. Kidd, 178 Ill. 2d 92, 104, 687 N.E.2d 945, 952 (1997), the court wrote that “[w]hen a defendant seeks to waive counsel, the trial court must not only determine that he is competent to stand trial but also satisfy itself that his waiver of this constitutional right is both knowing and voluntary,” citing Godinez v. Moran, 509 U.S. 389, 400, 125 L. Ed. 2d 321, 333, 113 S. Ct. 2680, 2687 (1993) (“trial court must satisfy itself that the waiver of [a defendant’s constitutional right to counsel] is knowing and voluntary”). See also Haynes, 174 Ill. 2d at 235, 673 N.E.2d at 332 (waiver of constitutional right to counsel must be “voluntary, knowing, and intelligent”); United States v. Patterson, 140 F.3d 767, 774 (8th Cir. 1998) (defendant’s waiver of counsel must be “knowing and voluntary”). Because Rule 401 implicitly requires that a waiver of a defendant’s right to counsel be voluntary, I must disagree with a decision of this court that suggests a valid Rule 401 waiver could be obtained involuntarily from a defendant. In Childs, 278 Ill. App. 3d 65, 662 N.E.2d 161, this court addressed a situation in which the defendant at the trial level was “playing games” with court procedures, insisting that he be represented by counsel, while also insisting that the two different assistant public defenders who had been appointed to represent him were incompetent and he needed other counsel. This court stated its disapproval of such game playing and wrote the following: “The trial court could have made an initial determination whether there was any valid basis to discharge counsel. Since none was shown, the court could have denied the motion to withdraw and proceeded with trial. On the other hand, had the court given the admonitions required by Rule 401(a), valid waiver of counsel could have been found, despite defendant’s insistence that he did not wish to represent himself.” (Emphasis added.) Childs, 278 Ill. App. 3d at 74, 662 N.E.2d at 166-67. I disagree with the emphasized sentence in that quotation from Childs. Trial courts must never reward a defendant’s obstructionist behavior. Yet, that is what happened in Childs. The defendant in Childs filed a complaint with the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission against the assistant public defender who was then representing him. The trial court therefore permitted that defense attorney to withdraw on the day of trial, but first gave defendant the choice of going to trial without an attorney, going to trial with that assistant public defender as his attorney, or hiring his own counsel within the next hour. Childs, 278 Ill. App. 3d at 69, 662 N.E.2d at 163. When the defendant — predictably—refused to exercise any of those options, the court made a fundamental mistake by discharging the assistant public defender and forcing defendant to represent himself. This court appropriately reversed and remanded for a new trial, but in doing so inappropriately indicated that trial courts have authority to force the waiver of counsel upon a defendant who insists that he does not want to represent himself. Despite the difficulties court-appointed counsel may encounter representing an obstructionist defendant who is hell-bent on interfering with an orderly and constructive attorney-client relationship, trial courts should almost never permit such counsel to withdraw from representing that defendant. A trial court’s doing so only rewards this bad behavior. As the trial court in Childs learned, courts delude themselves by thinking an obstructionist defendant is somehow going to behave better when a new court-appointed counsel enters the picture. Trial courts should not hesitate to reject motions to withdraw filed by court-appointed counsel when those motions are based on the grounds that the relationship between the defendant and counsel has become “poisonous” or unpleasant due to defendant’s bad behavior. Instead of granting such motions, the court should make clear to the defendant that failing to cooperate with his counsel will only hurt the defendant and that the court will not change counsel. Perhaps a graphic way of getting this point across is to explain that if defendant is convicted and sentenced to prison, when the bus to Stateville comes to pick him up, only he will get on, not his lawyer. Illinois law provides trial courts with the means of trying to persuade nonindigent defendants to hire lawyers of their own choice. Indeed, a fundamental purpose underlying section 113 — 3.1 of the Code, permitting trial courts to order defendants to reimburse the State or the county a reasonable sum for the services of appointed counsel, was to address situations such as that in the present case. 725 ILCS 5/113 — 3.1 (West 1996). Trial courts can say to such a defendant that if he fails to hire an attorney of his own choice, then the court will appoint counsel and require defendant to pay for the services of that counsel to the extent the court finds he is capable of doing so, with a possible maximum payment of $5,000. Utilizing this statute, a trial court should explain to a defendant (who has not waived his right to counsel pursuant to Rule 401) that the issue before the defendant is whether he will be represented by an attorney of his own choice or one of the court’s, but either way he will wind up paying a considerable sum of money. The court should further suggest that, in view of these two choices, perhaps the defendant might want to reconsider his decision not to hire an attorney of his own choice. In People v. Williams, 92 Ill. 2d 109, 118, 440 N.E.2d 843, 847 (1982), the Supreme Court of Illinois wrote: “[W]here a defendant who is financially able to engage counsel has been instructed to do so within a certain and reasonable time, but he fails to do so and does not show reasonable cause why he was unable to secure representation, the court may treat such a failure as a waiver of the right to counsel and require him to proceed with the hearing.” However, I have serious doubts as to whether the Supreme Court of Illinois would continue to adhere to its decision in Williams and, even if it did so, whether .that decision continues to provide much guidance to trial courts. First, Williams cited no decision from the United States Supreme Court as underlying its holding, and the decisions the Supreme Court has rendered since 1982, such as Godinez, 509 U.S. 389, 125 L. Ed. 2d 321, 113 S. Ct. 2680, suggest that the Supreme Court has taken a harder line on finding waiver of a defendant’s right to counsel than that shown in Williams. Next, section 113 — 3.1 of the Code was enacted effective July 1, 1982, some weeks before the supreme court decided Williams, thus providing trial courts with a means of persuading nonindigent defendants to hire counsel that was not available when the trial in Williams occurred. The Supreme Court of Illinois might well conclude, as discussed in this special concurrence, that trial courts should fully utilize this new statute before they will be permitted to whittle away at a fundamental constitutional right. Last, even if the Supreme Court of Illinois were willing to continue to follow Williams, it might do so only under the most compelling factual circumstances, leaving trial courts to guess whether a particular situation before them is compelling enough. For instance, in King v. People, 728 P.2d 1264 (Colo. 1986), the Colorado Supreme Court addressed a case in which a defendant charged with a felony failed not only to hire private counsel, but also to report to a court agency that would investigate his financial status and determine his eligibility for court-appointed counsel, as the trial court had directed. Over a two-month period, the trial court repeatedly warned the defendant of his right to counsel and of the necessity of contacting the eligibility investigator, but the defendant nonetheless appeared on the date of trial without having either hired an attorney or seen the eligibility investigator. Despite the defendant’s statement that he needed an attorney to defend himself, the court directed that the trial would proceed, and defendant was ultimately convicted. King, 728 P.2d at 1267. The Colorado Supreme Court reversed, holding as follows: “In order for a court to conclude that an accused has impliedly waived counsel, the record as a whole, including the reasons proffered by the defendant for not having counsel, must show that the defendant knowingly and willingly undertook a course of conduct that evinces an unequivocal intent to relinquish or abandon his right to legal representation.” King, 728 P.2d at 1269. This standard, which is probably the minimum required by the sixth amendment to the United States Constitution (U.S. Const., amend. VI), is nonetheless so high that for all practical purposes trial courts ought to consider it essentially unreachable. Furthermore, if trial courts properly utilize section 113 — 3.1 of the Code, as described herein, they will not need to determine whether the behavior of the defendant in the case before them is egregious enough to “evince[ ] an unequivocal intent” (King, 728 P.2d at 1269) to relinquish or abandon his right to legal representation. As a last matter, trial courts should be mindful that if a reviewing court finds a trial court erred by denying a defendant his request to be represented by counsel, that error almost certainly will be deemed reversible. Experience suggests that trial courts who utilize section 113 — 3.1 of the Code as described herein will ultimately not have many defendants choosing court-appointed counsel when those defendants in fact have the means to hire their own attorneys. In handling those few defendants who are sufficiently stubborn to persist in their dubious claims of not being able to afford to hire private counsel, trial courts should resist distorting the important, fundamental right to counsel, guaranteed by the sixth amendment to the United States Constitution and article I, section 8, of the Illinois Constitution of 1970 (Ill. Const. 1970, art. I, § 8), by engaging in some sort of contest with these defendants to see who blinks first. Instead, courts confronted with such a defendant should appoint counsel and utilize section 113 — 3.1 of the Code to its fullest, requiring such a defendant to pay $5,000 in an appropriate case.