Court Opinion

ID: 9626857
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 08:25:41.946791+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:06:34.647708
License: Public Domain

Hall, Justice,
concurring specially.
Faretta’s conviction of grand theft was vacated by the United States Supreme Court which ruled on certiorari that the trial court, in forcing Faretta to accept the services of the public defender, had erroneously denied him his Sixth Amendment right to represent himself.
We must be careful that trial courts are not caught in an impossible squeeze: If they refuse to allow a defendant to represent himself and he is convicted, the conviction may be reversed on the ground that he was denied his right of self-representation; but if the court does allow him to represent himself and he is convicted, an appellate court may reverse upon finding that his choice was not intelligently made. Accordingly, we must take care what tests we apply.
Faretta makes plain that for a valid choice, a defendant must not only waive counsel under the Johnson v. Zerbst standard of waiver, but must affirmatively choose self-representation. 422 U. S. at 836. "We do not suggest that this right [of self-representation] arises mechanically from a defendant’s power to waive the right to the assistance of counsel. . . On the contrary, the right must be independently found in the structure and history of the constitutional text.” 422 U. S. 819, n. 15. In electing self-representation, a defendant must act "competently and intelligently” in making his choice (422 U. S. at 835), but "a defendant need not himself have the skill and experience of a lawyer. . .” Id. Therefore, I cannot agree with the theory or result of the dissenting opinion which suggests that a defendant must be able to function at trial as adequately as an attorney to invoke successfully the right to represent himself. This reasoning conflicts with the Supreme Court’s warnings in Faretta that defendant’s "technical legal knowledge, as such, was not relevant to an assessment of his knowing exercise of the right to defend himself,” Id. at 836, and that "although he may conduct his defense ultimately to his own detriment, *505his choice must be honored. . .” Id. at 834.
The Supreme Court has stated that defendant must know what he is doing and must make his choice of self-representation with his eyes open. 422 U. S. at 836.1 think Taylor did that, and I concur in the affirmance of Taylor’s conviction for the reasons stated in the majority opinion and also for these additional reasons. I also conclude that Taylor by his choice waived forever his option of raising after conviction an issue of ineffectiveness of counsel, when counsel was he.