Court Opinion

ID: 9581453
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 22:15:05.766327+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:36:57.888247
License: Public Domain

Beasley, Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
I concur in the judgment but cannot agree with all that is contained in the opinion.
I would not overrule Brown v. State, 161 Ga. App. 663 (289 SE2d 535) (1982).
Brown is distinguishable. There was nothing in the opinion to indicate that defendant was warned at any time of the dangers of proceeding without trial or knew of them. Thus there was no assurance that, when he was told he did not qualify for publicly-paid counsel, his decision whether to hire counsel or represent himself should be guided by the dangers of proceeding pro se.
Here it is abundantly clear from the record that defendant knew the danger of representing himself and kept insisting at the outset of the trial that the court still allow him to seek employed counsel even though the court had already given months and months for him to do so. Any error, then, in not advising him at the time he was found not indigent, when his choice became one of hiring an attorney or representing himself, would be harmless. This is because he demonstrated his knowledge of the danger of representing himself, which role was not affirmatively chosen but was cast upon him by his own default, occasioned when he completely ignored the court’s early admonition to settle the question of representation promptly.
Of course, I agree with the majority that the warning need not be given at trial if it has already been given or is understood. It would be merely perfunctory.
As I read Clarke v. Zant, 247 Ga. 194 (275 SE2d 49) (1981), Cochran v. State, 253 Ga. 10 (315 SE2d 653) (1984), and the United States Supreme Court authority governing these decisions, there must be assurance that a criminal defendant who chooses to represent himself knows of “the dangers and disadvantages of self-representation,” whether the defendant is indigent or not. The choice must be made by the non-indigent just as it must be made by the indigent. The consequences of opting for self-representation are identical. I would fol*544low Horton v. State, 161 Ga. App. 664 (2) (289 SE2d 788) (1982) and Glaze v. State, 172 Ga. App. 802 (325 SE2d 172) (1984) in this regard.
Decided March 18, 1987
Rehearing denied April 3, 1987
Charles A. Mathis, Jr., D. James Jordan, for appellant.
Dennis C. Sanders, District Attorney, Howard W. Wallace III, Margaret E. McCann, Assistant District Attorneys, for appellee.
I am authorized to state that Presiding Judge Deen and Judge Pope join in this opinion.