ID: hellbent defendant, carwreck ahead
At this point, I just want to turn away for a while from the unfolding Joseph Duncan death penalty pro se debacle. If you're interested, Betsy Z. Russell of the Spokesman-Review's Eye on Boise blog has your best running coverage.
1 Comment:
Gotta agree. I had a jury duty stint where defendant and friends were defrauding every old-guard business in town that still worked on the honor system of a handshake or a signature being enough. And defendant insisted on self-representing until the last day.
I got a month-long lesson in pinochle (while we were out of the courtroom due to one complication or another) and in the aphorism 'He who represents himself has a fool for a client'.
And that was fraud, not this heinous blend of crimes and violations of public mores... so I'm pretty much convinced there's no way this goes well for Duncan.
One counterthought: this may give the community and the victims' families better closure: Duncan's insisting on self-representation means he'll be personally struggling to argue his case -- him talking for himself is much more likely to leave clues on why or how than if all anyone hears is an attorney scatter-gunning possible excuses or arguments.
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