Sniper suspect John Allen Muhammad will be represented by defense lawyers

Yahoo

[petitfour]

I heard earlier today that extra security had been ordered for the proceedings since Muhammad is/was representing himself, and the judge had ordered Muhammad not to touch the rifle/evidence because it was unsettling to the victims and the other folks in the courtroom. Hubby immediately thought this was grounds for the defendant, when found guilty, to call for a mistrial. Now that the guy is no longer representing himself, I wonder what will happen. What a circus!

[Catspaw]

This seems to be another judge willing to let the accused run the courtroom as he sees fit.

When a defendant wants to represent himself, the judge has to do an examination of the defendant to see if the defendant is competent to represent himself. The judge did that--in fact, he had to do make that decision so there wouldn't be reversible error on appeal (and I sure don't want this case to be tried again).

My guess is that Muhammed's lawyers went to him last night and begged him not to continue representing himself--especially after the judge physically separated Muhammed from his lawyers so they couldn't coach him.

[r9etb]

This seems to be another judge willing to let the accused run the courtroom as he sees fit.

Not really. This is a good thing. First off, it prevents Muhamhead from making it a circus. Second, and most important, it removes an obvious ground for appeal.

[sully777]

Anyone outside tri-state area ever heard of Colin Ferguson?

Colin Ferguson, black racist of the the Long Island Rail shootings, denied an insanity plea and instead gave a surreal, disjointed self-defence. He was more than happy to say he hated whites, asians, latinos, and "uncle tom negroes." Press was very reluctant to paint him and his actions as a hate-crime, espec. national press.

His defence amounted to bullying his former victims who were also the prosecution's witnesses. If I'm not mistaken, one of the witnesses stood up to him on the stand. Some say it was very painful for the witnesses.

Verdict was sure, well as sure as any verdict in NY, life behind bars. I did a google search and found that they put ole racist Colin in his personal cell, isolated from the general population because officials fear reprisals.

[ItsOurTimeNow]

wearing their "FRY MUMIA" T-shirts.

Where can I get one of those?

[BillF]

Get your FRY MUMIA t-shirt from FR's abner at http://www.abnerjones.com/.

[TSgt]

Yes! I do remember watching some of that on Court TV.

Colin's favorite word was "ascertain."

When he asked one of his victims if the person who shot them was in the court room they looked at him and said, "yes, you shot me."

I only wish they would have hung the racist murderer!

[newgeezer]

I can't understand how they can find anyone to defend a scumbag like this.

It's a lawyer thing. :-)

[Boxsford]

Weird story. Never heard it before.
It's an 'in your face' advantage by the killer. He gets to further his revenge; this time on the victim's family. There is no way I could deal with that.

[MeekOneGOP]

Thanks ! I post that on the execution threads.

The far lefties act bipolar most of the time it seems ! ...

[aristeides]

It was indecent when Muhammad crossexamined one of his victims yesterday.

[Puppage]

he also has the autonomy to change his legal team.

Not in mid stream. But, not being a Lawyer I could quite possibly be wrong. Either way, he fries.

[pepperhead]

Did he give the opening argument? I am guessing he did and now since he has basically got to testify without a cross examination he is quitting and letting his lawyers finish off the case. Plus he got the added bonus of terrorizing his victims again. Muhammed is toast anyway but the judge should have never let him represent himself.