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News Coverage of Indiana v. Edwards

By standdown

The opinion is here.  The ScotusWiki page is here. Linda Greenhouse reports, "Self-Representation by the Mentally Ill Is Curbed," in today's New York Times.A mentally ill defendant who is nonetheless competent to stand trial is not necessarily competent to dispense with a lawyer and represent himself, the Supreme Court ruled on Thursday. The court said that judges could ?take realistic account of the particular defendant?s mental capacities? and, in the interest of achieving a fair trial, deny the constitutional right to self-representation that criminal defendants ordinarily enjoy. The 7-to-2 decision overturned a ruling by the Indiana Supreme Court that had found that a schizophrenic man was entitled to a new trial on a charge of attempted murder because the trial judge had improperly denied his request to represent himself...continue to full post

Full post as published by StandDown Texas Project on June 20, 2008 (boomark / email).