Court Opinion

ID: 9496392
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 16:25:27.939494+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:57:33.036155
License: Public Domain

KATZMANN, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
While I agree that we should affirm the District Court’s judgment denying Dallio’s petition for a writ of habeas corpus, I arrive at this conclusion through a different analysis. In my view Faretta v. California, 422 U.S. 806, 95 S.Ct. 2525, 45 L.Ed.2d 562 (1975), establishes clear federal law requiring that a defendant be aware of the dangers and disadvantages of self-representation in order to knowingly waive the right to counsel. Because there is absolutely no indication that Dallio comprehended these perils upon proceeding pro se, I conclude that his Sixth Amendment right to counsel was violated. I also conclude, however, that any constitutional violation endured by Dallio was harmless.
The majority opinion rests upon two bases. The majority first concludes that the Faretta Court’s discussion of a criminal defendant’s awareness “of the dangers and disadvantages of self-representation,” Faretta, 422 U.S. at 835, 95 S.Ct. 2525, was dictum and thus not entitled to deference under AEDPA. Maj. Op. at 562. Alternatively, the majority concludes that the petition should be denied because a Faretta warning, which cautions against the perils of self-representation, is not clearly established as “a minimum constitutional prerequisite to every valid waiver of the right to counsel.” Maj. Op. at 564. I respectfully disagree with each of these bases for affirming.
First, I cannot agree that Faretta’s discussion of what constitutes a valid waiver of the right to counsel was not determinative in that case, and therefore dictum. It is clear from Faretta that knowing and intelligent waiver was a necessary component of the disposition of Faretta’s petition. The Court explicitly analyzed whether Faretta himself met the standard for voluntariness it had just set out:
Here, weeks before trial, Faretta clearly and unequivocally declared to the trial judge that he wanted to represent himself and did not want counsel. The record affirmatively shows that Faretta was literate, competent, and understanding, and that he was voluntarily exercising his informed free will. The trial judge had warned Faretta that he thought it was a mistake not to accept the assistance of counsel, and that Far-etta would be required to follow all the “ground rules” of trial procedure. We need make no assessment of how well or poorly Faretta had mastered the intricacies of the hearsay rule and the California code provisions that govern challenges of potential jurors on voir dire. *566For his technical legal' knowledge, as such, was not relevant to an assessment of his knowing exercise of the right to defend himself.
In forcing Faretta, under these circumstances, to accept against his will a state-appointed public defender, the California courts deprived him of his constitutional right to conduct his own defense.
Id. at 835-36, 95 S.Ct. 2525 (emphasis added). From this passage I think the conclusion is inescapable that if the Court had not been satisfied with its “assessment of [Faretta’s] knowing exercise,” it would not have vacated the judgment of the California Supreme Court. It was only because Faretta validly waived the right to counsel that the Court found that the trial court violated his right to counsel by not honoring that waiver. Thus, the Court’s “knowing and intelligent” requirement was essential to its conclusion that Faretta’s constitutional rights had been violated. It was, in other words, not “dictum.” See Black’s Law Dictionary 1100 (7th ed.1999) (defining “obiter dictum” (often shortened to “dictum”) as “[a] judicial comment made during the course of delivering a judicial opinion, but one that is unnecessary to the decision in the case and therefore not prec-edential (though it may be considered persuasive)”); see also id. at 737 (defining “holding” as “[a] court’s determination of a matter of law pivotal to its decision; a principle drawn from such a decision”).
As to the majority’s second basis for its holding' — Faretta does not impose a legal mandate for warnings — I agree that Faret-ta does not compel a rigid formula for a colloquy between the trial judge and the defendant to advise of the dangers and disadvantages of self-representation.1 See, e.g., Torres v. United States, 140 F.3d 392, *567401 (2d Cir.1998); United States v. Tracy, 12 F.3d 1186, 1194 (2d Cir.1993). Where I part company with the majority is wdth respect to what Faretta and other Supreme Court decisions do require. In my view, there must be some basis in the record for us to conclude that the defendant was aware of the adverse consequences of proceeding pro se. The Court in Adams v. United States ex re. McCann, 317 U.S. 269, 63 S.Ct. 236, 87 L.Ed. 268 (1942), for instance, explained that a criminal defendant “may waive his Constitutional right to assistance of counsel if he knows what he is doing and his choice is made with eyes open.” Id. at 279, 63 S.Ct. 236 (citing Johnson v. Zerbst, 304 U.S. 458, 469, 58 S.Ct. 1019, 82 L.Ed. 1461 (1938)); see Faretta, 422 U.S. at 835, 95 S.Ct. 2525 (explaining that a criminal defendant “should be made aware of the dangers and disadvantages of self-representation, so that the record will establish that ‘he knows what he is doing and his choice is made with eyes open’ ” (quoting Adams, 317 U.S. at 279; 63 S.Ct. 236)). The Faretta Court similarly advised that “in order to represent himself, the accused must ‘knowingly and intelligently1 forgo those relinquished benefits [associated with the right to counsel].” 422 U.S. at 835, 95 S.Ct. 2525 (citing Johnson, 304 U.S. at 464-65, 58 S.Ct. 1019).
The transcripts of the suppression hearings are devoid of any indication that Dal-lio knowingly and voluntarily waived his right to counsel. At the April 19, 1995 hearing, prior to the conclusion of the prosecution’s case, Dallio voiced a desire to represent himself. After Dallio made several statements criticizing the quality of his counseled representation, the following exchange with the trial judge ensued:
THE COURT: Are you ready to proceed now?
THE DEFENDANT: Yes.
THE COURT: You may proceed.
THE DEFENDANT: As pro se?
THE COURT: Take the witness stand.
(Tr. Apr. 19, 1995, at 68.) Dallio represented himself for the remainder of the hearing as O’Grady remained in the courtroom. The court’s failure to advise Dallio of the dangers of proceeding pro se may have been rectified if the record indicated elsewhere that the defendant was making a knowing and voluntary waiver. Nowhere in the record, however, is there even a glimmer of such indication.2
On this point, I respectfully disagree with the majority’s suggestion that the dangers of self-representation were trivial in this case. Maj. Op. at 561 n.2 (“Under these circumstances, there appear to be few, if any, specific dangers and disadvantages about which Dallio needed to be informed preliminary to making a knowing and intelligent decision to waive his right to counsel.”). While it is true that at a suppression hearing before a judge, a pro se defendant does not face the danger of prejudice for incompetent performance which exists in front of a jury, other dangers of self-representation may be magnified. Suppression hearings often involve complex legal and evidentiary issues unfamiliar to a layperson. A typical defendant, who seeks to suppress evidence without the aid of counsel, in all likelihood would be largely unfamiliar with the proper evi-dentiary objections to make and legal arguments and strategies to advance.3
*568In addition, Dallio’s self-representation was hardly minimal. As the majority opinion notes, approximately half of the suppression hearing transpired with Dallio representing himself. Maj. Op. at 561 n.2. Proceeding pro se, Dallio submitted to the court a supplemental motion to suppress, recalled Detective Copeland, testified on his own behalf in narrative form, and called Shawangunk Corrections Officer Scott Willis, which prompted a rebuttal witness from the prosecution. Dallio concluded with a rather lengthy argument for suppression, in which he discussed Miranda and coercive interrogation techniques.
Nor is the fact that Dallio ultimately performed competently in conducting his defense necessarily material to determine the validity of a Sixth Amendment waiver under Faretta. See Faretta, 422 U.S. at 836, 95 S.Ct. 2525 (“[The defendant’s] technical legal knowledge ... was not relevant to an assessment of his knowing exercise of the right to defend himself.”); see also Godinez v. Moran, 509 U.S. 389, 399, 113 S.Ct. 2680, 125 L.Ed.2d 321 (1993) (“[T]he competence that is required of a defendant seeking to waive his right to counsel is the competence to waive the right, • not the competence to represent himself.”). Rather, what matters is whether the defendant made a constitutionally valid waiver, which entails knowing the “dangers and disadvantages of self-representation.” Faretta, 422 U.S. at 835, 95 S.Ct. 2525.
Although I disagree with the majority’s view that the Appellate Division did not unreasonably apply clear federal law as set forth in Faretta, I also conclude that the error suffered by Dallio was harmless. I begin with the threshold query of whether Dallio’s Sixth Amendment violation was a structural error and thus excluded from harmless error scrutiny because it affected the entire conduct of the trial. See Arizona v. Fulminante, 499 U.S. 279, 309-10, 111 S.Ct. 1246, 113 L.Ed.2d 302 (1991). Structural errors are per se prejudicial, and a conviction tainted by structural error must be vacated. Neder v. United States, 527 U.S. 1, 8-9, 119 S.Ct. 1827, 144 L.Ed.2d 35 (1999). In contrast, there are certain “constitutional errors which in the setting of a particular case are so unimportant and insignificant that they may, consistent with the Federal Constitution, be deemed harmless, not requiring automatic reversal of the conviction.” Chapman v. California, 386 U.S. 18, 22, 87 S.Ct. 824, 17 L.Ed.2d 705 (1967); see Fulminante, 499 U-S. at 306, 111 S.Ct. 1246 (stating that the Court has made clear that “a constitutional error does not automatically require reversal of a conviction,” and “has recognized that most constitutional errors can be harmless”). Situations where the Supreme Court has applied harmless error analysis to constitutional errors have “involved ‘trial error’ — error which occurred during the presentation of the case to the jury, and which may therefore be quantitatively assessed in the context of other evidence presented in order to determine whether its admission was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.” Fulminante, 499 U.S. at 307-08, 111 S.Ct. 1246; see Brecht v. Abrahamson, 507 U.S. 619, 629, 113 S.Ct. 1710, 123 L.Ed.2d 353 (1993).
Violations of the Sixth Amendment right to counsel are structural only in two circumstances. The first circumstance, the “[a]ctual or constructive denial of the assistance of counsel altogether,” Penson v. Ohio, 488 U.S. 75, 88, 109 S.Ct. 346, 102 L.Ed.2d 300 (1988) (emphasis added) (quotation marks and citation omitted), clearly *569does not apply here because Dallio had the assistance of counsel from the time of his arrest and for the majority of the suppression hearing. The second situation occurs if counsel was “prevented from assisting the accused during a critical stage of the proceeding.” United States v. Cronic, 466 U.S. 648, 659 n. 25, 104 S.Ct. 2089, 80 L.Ed.2d 657 (1984); see also Mickens v. Taylor, 535 U.S. 162, 122 S.Ct. 1237, 1240-41, 152 L.Ed.2d 291 (2002) (“We have spared the defendant the need of showing probable effect upon the outcome, and have simply presumed such effect, where assistance of counsel has been denied entirely or during a critical stage of the proceeding.”). As to whether Dallio’s counsel was “prevented from assisting [Dallio] during a critical stage of the proceeding,” Cronic, 466 U.S. at 659 n. 25, 104 S.Ct. 2039, I note that Dallio’s attorney was not prevented from assisting him throughout the suppression hearing, as Dallio received the assistance of counsel for the majority of the suppression hearing and, even during Dallio’s self-representation, his counsel remained in the courtroom available to provide assistance or advice if needed. I thus conclude that Dallio’s Sixth Amendment violation is amenable to harmless error analysis.4
The Supreme Court has formulated two tests for determining whether a constitutional error can be regarded harmless. Under Chapman, “before a federal constitutional error can be held harmless, the court must be able to declare a belief that it was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.” 386 U.S. at 24, 87 S.Ct. 824. In Brecht, however, the Supreme Court enunciated a slightly different harmless error standard in the context of federal habeas review of a state court conviction: “habeas petitioners may obtain plenary review of their constitutional claims, but they are not entitled to habeas relief based on trial error unless they can establish that it resulted in ‘actual prejudice.’ ” 507 U.S. at 637, 113 S.Ct. 1710. In Lainfiesta v. Artuz, 253 F.3d 151 (2d Cir.2001), cert. denied, 535 U.S. 1019, 122 S.Ct. 1611, 152 L.Ed.2d 625 (2002), a panel of this Court applied Brecht, thus indicating that the Brecht standard remains in force with the passage of AEDPA. Id. at 158. In Fuller v. Gorczyk, 273 F.3d 212 (2d Cir.2001), which was decided after Lainfiesta, however, another panel declined to address whether Brecht controls post-AEDPA, but noted that several of our sister circuits have questioned Brecht’s continued vitality. Id. at 220.
As in Fuller, this issue need not be resolved on this day because Dallio cannot prevail under either Chapman or Brecht. While in the abstract a defendant proceeding pro se at a suppression hearing faces various dangers and disadvantages, Dallio was not prejudiced by any of these potential dangers during his self-representation. Dallio was represented by counsel for much of the prosecution’s case at the suppression hearing, during which Detective Copeland and Detective Pierce were exten*570sively cross-examined. Even as Dallio presented his own defense, his attorney remained present as stand-by counsel for the duration of the hearing. Furthermore, notwithstanding some difficulties Dallio encountered while examining the witnesses, on the whole Dallio performed quite competently when he recalled Detective Copeland, questioned Officer Willis, and offered a closing argument. Any error, therefore, was “harmless beyond a reasonable doubt,” Chapman, 386 U.S. at 24, 87 S.Ct. 824, and did not “result[ ] in ‘actual prejudice,’ ” Brecht, 507 U.S. at 637, 113 S.Ct. 1710.
Thus, I too would affirm.

. See United States v. Fore, 169 F.3d 104, 108 (2d Cir.1999) ("The district judge and defendant should engage in a colloquy on the record [regarding waiver of the right to counsel], but there is no scripted procedure for this discussion.”); United States v. Tompkins, 623 F.2d 824, 828 (2d Cir.1980) (explaining that a recorded colloquy between the judge and the defendant is usually preferred, but not always required). Our sister circuits are split on whether a recorded hearing is required to assess the validity of a waiver of the right to counsel. Compare United States v. Edwards, 716 F.2d 822, 824 (11th Cir.1983) ("[T]he trial judge must conduct a hearing to ensure that the accused understands the dangers and disadvantages of proceeding pro se.” (citation omitted)), United States v. Welty, 674 F.2d 185, 193 (3d Cir.1982) (stating that "a defendant’s waiver of counsel can be deemed effective only where the district court judge has made a searching inquiry sufficient to satisfy him that the defendant's waiver was understanding and voluntary”), and United States v. Chaney, 662 F.2d 1148, 1152 (5th Cir. Unit B 1981) ("[A] trial judge must conduct a waiver hearing to make sure that the accused understands the risks of proceeding pro se and that he 'knowingly and intelligently waives the right to counsel’ before permitting the accused to proceed personally.” (quoting Faretta, 422 U.S. at 835, 95 S.Ct. 2525)), with United States v. Keen, 104 F.3d 1111, 1114-45 (9th Cir. 1997) (noting that “preferred procedure” is for court to discuss impact of self-representation in open court, but that there are "limited exception[s]” to this practice "when the record as a whole reveals a knowing and intelligent waiver" (quotation marks and citation omitted)), United States v. Bell, 901 F.2d 574, 578-79 (7th Cir.1990) (holding that the defendant knowingly and intelligently waived his right to counsel even though the "exchange between the magistrate and [the defendant] was inadequate, standing alone, to inform [the defendant] of the dangers and disadvantages of self-representation”), United States v. Torres, 793 F.2d 436, 438 n. 5 (1st Cir.1986) ("Although the practice of issuing specific warnings to defendants who wish to proceed pro se is a good way-perhaps the best way-to insure that the requirements of Faretta ... are met, it is not the only way.” (quotation marks and citation omitted)), and Fitzpatrick v. Wainwright, 800 F.2d 1057, 1065 (11th Cir.1986) ("[W]hile a waiver hearing expressly addressing the disadvantages of a pro se defense is much to be preferred, it is not absolutely necessary.”).

. Dallio's attorney, John O'Grady, referenced an "in-depth conversation” with Dallio regarding his decision to proceed pro se, but there is no indication whether that conversation entailed explaining to Dallio the dangers and disadvantages of self-representation. (Tr. Apr. 19, 1995, at 63.)

. Indeed, it appears that Dallio’s self-representation at points was hindered by his ignorance of the proper legal rules under New York law. For instance, it seems that at times Dallio relied on the federal rules of evidence, rather than New York rules, and at one point the prosecutor commented to the court that *568Dallio should confer more with his counsel because of the difficulties he was experiencing representing himself.

. Even if one were to conclude that Dallio's attorney was prevented from assisting him during the suppression hearing, it still is unclear that all denials of the right to counsel at critical stages are structural errors. On one hand, the Court explained in Cronic that "[t]he presumption that counsel's assistance is essential requires us to conclude that a trial is unfair if the accused is denied counsel at a critical stage of trial.” Cronic, 466 U.S. at 659, 104 S.Ct. 2039. In Coleman v. Alabama, 399 U.S. 1, 90 S.Ct. 1999, 26 L.Ed.2d 387 (1970), however, where the defendant was deprived of the right to counsel for the entirety of a preliminary hearing that the Court determined was a critical stage, the Court remanded with instructions that “[t]he test to be applied is whether the denial of counsel at the preliminary hearing was harmless under Chapman v. California.” Id. at 11, 90 S.Ct. 1999.