Court Opinion

ID: 9699375
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 20:21:21.12672+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:20:49.525129
License: Public Domain

MANDERINO, Justice,
dissenting.
The majority is correct when it states that Davis had the right to conduct his own defense and waive his right to effective counsel. However, the decision to proceed without counsel must be made voluntarily, knowingly, and intelligently. These adjectives do not merely comprise a neat cliche; instead, they establish the criteria which must be met before we can find a valid waiver.
In this case, Davis clearly believed that he had a good defense based upon the fact that he was arrested under the wrong name. In a conference in the court’s chambers, he stated, “Well, I’ve been arrested and I haven’t yet been charged, because my name is not Benjamin Davis, and I have my military discharge that will state that my name is Franklin Davis and my social security is not 196-46-3401, it’s 096-46-3401.” Davis later introduced his military discharge papers and only made a short summation to the jury. Since Davis was permitted to defend himself with the mistaken notion that he did not have a good defense, there was no intelligent waiver. If Davis had chosen counsel and counsel had pursued this defense, such counsel would have been ineffective. To permit Davis to unwittingly so defend himself and label it a “waiver” is unconscionable.
I must dissent.