Mentally Ill Defendants Can Represent Themselves?
March 27, 2008
What happens when a mentally ill defendant is declared competent to stand trial and the decides he wants to represent himself at his trial?In Indiana, he gets denied that Constitutional right and the resulting case makes its way to the U.S. Supreme Court. The high court held oral arguments yesterday in the case Indiana v. Edwards. For the time being it appears more likely than not that a mentally ill defendant declared fit for trial will not be granted the right to self-representation. However, as Justice Scalia so poignantly put it, “If a defendant can be allowed to plead guilty, he or she should also be allowed to make the less serious decision in favor of self-representation.”It will be interesting to read the Court’s opinion on this one, when it’s issued.
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