NEWS ANALYSIS
Attorney unlikely to have saved Polk, experts say
Janine DeFao, Jim Herron Zamora, Henry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff WritersSaturday, June 17, 2006
Susan Polk would have been better served if she hadn't acted as her own attorney, but it wouldn't have averted her murder conviction, jurors and legal experts said Friday.
An attorney would probably have cut off any talk of psychics, fairies, conspiracy theories, family dogs and the alleged looting of the Polk family's estate. The lawyer would have focused instead on Polk's claim of self-defense, experts said.
And jurors wouldn't have been subjected to Polk's unorthodox behavior in court -- including repeated motions for a mistrial to accusations of misconduct by the judge and prosecutor -- and hours of often repetitive testimony by Polk.
But jurors said Friday that none of her antics would have changed their verdict.
At best, they would have been back to their normal lives a lot sooner had an attorney "expedited the process," said juror Pat Roland.
Asked if Polk was happy with her lawyering skills, Polk's assistant and friend, Valerie Harris, said, "She said just before the verdict came down that if she had to represent herself again, she would do it all over, because she learned a lot."
Harris said Polk "absolutely" plans to appeal and to represent herself again. "She said this time she'll be better at it," she said. . . .
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/06/17/MNG72JFTDR1.DTL
Prosecutor Paul Sequeira, who often butted heads with Susan Polk during her trial,
tells reporters at a news conference that Polk can't claim ineffective assistance of
counsel in her appeal because she waived that right when she represented herself.