Court Opinion

ID: 9520645
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 01:46:16.597948+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:46:35.348514
License: Public Domain

DIAZ, Circuit Judge,
concurring:
I continue to doubt the wisdom of applying plain error review to the appeal of a pro se defendant alleging a defective Faretta waiver on the basis of mental incompetency, for “it is paradoxical to expect a defendant to recognize his own ‘gray area’ competency, and then object to his own motion to proceed pro se.” United States v. Bernard, 708 F.3d 583, 596 (4th Cir. 2013) (Diaz, J., dissenting). But because the facts of this case demonstrate no error in Rodgers’s Faretta waiver under any standard of review, I concur in the judgment.