His three court-appointed lawyers filed a motion Sunday saying that the 22-year-old wanted to discharge them and represent himself. Judge Richard Gergel of U.S. District Court granted the motion moments before jury selection began though he called the self-described white supremacist's decision "strategically unwise."Objection, elitist jibber-jabber!
Mr. Roof, assuredly a rational actor like almost all of those who enter our justice system either though shackle or the total non-shackle of a law school loan application, no doubt looked at his court-appointed lawyers and found them not up to the task of defending him in high-stakes litigation.
This is not an insane serial killer trolling everyone; this is a sign that the bar of the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina simply isn't putting forth sufficient counsel so that [accused!] racist mass murderers feel confident in the public defense system for capital crimes.
It's bad enough that a shortage of barbers has left Mr. Roof with a bowl cut that's not even the envy of a damaged Propecia user. The least we could do is set up a system that's so flooded with competent legal counsel that Mr. Roof can find one to his racist and insane liking. I mean, if we're going to conclude that these dudes are able to be tried and death penaltied even though the screws are not even there, the least we could do is give them an overwhelmingly diverse carousel of desperate suits so at least one is to their liking.
I say expand Charleston and build one at Clemson, with maybe a satellite branch at Myrtle Beach. More lawyers. More more more. So many that we go back and take Fort Sumpter with slapdash motions and overwrought, repetitive correspondence...
Sad actually. A very sad man living a marginal, hollow existence. Ironically, a move like that might just "humanize" him and spares him the death penalty.
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