Court Opinion

ID: 9770548
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 16:08:58.714089+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:31:18.328646
License: Public Domain

Tom Glaze, Justice, concurring. The state concedes error, pointing out that the trial court failed to ensure the appellant knowingly and intelligently waived assistance of counsel. I write to emphasize that the trial court exercised considerable patience and restraint when dealing with appellant’s obstreperous conduct on the day of trial. Appellant terminated his counsel the day of trial, and giving no sound reasons, demanded a continuance, which the trial judge denied. Appellant became uncooperative and belligerent, even to the extent that, in open court and before the prospective jury panel, he voiced he was being railroaded. Nothing substantiated such a remark. Although the trial judge had every right to remove the appellant from the courtroom because of appellant’s disruptive conduct, the judge was still required to ensure appellant knowingly and intelligently waived counsel, once appellant terminated counsel and chose to represent himself. I wish to make it clear that, in this case, the trial judge would have been justified in denying the appellant’s continuance request, but still require the appellant to proceed with counsel, Bryant v. State, 304 Ark. 514, 803 S.W.2d 546 (1991), or even without counsel, once his sixth amendment rights were explained as described in Faretta v. California, 422 U.S. 806 (1975). Jesson, C.J., joins this concurring opinion.