Ego, Ideology, Paranoia: Why Do Killers Represent Themselves?
By representing himself in the penalty phase of his trial for the church massacre in Charleston, S.C., Dylann Roof joins a roster of notorious killers who have gone that route — a list that could serve as a caution to anyone considering following their lead.
Some criminal defendants who act as their own lawyers want a stage to promote an ideology; some apparently want the spotlight or think they can fare better than a real lawyer; some are too controlling to let anyone else be in charge; some are too paranoid to trust lawyers; and some are just delusional.
Whatever the motive, it rarely ends well for the defendant. Judges routinely advise against it, and often insist that court-appointed counsel be on hand as a backup.
The Fort Hood killer
Nidal Malik Hasan, an Army major and a psychiatrist, killed 13 people and injured 30 in a shooting spree at Fort Hood, Tex., in 2009. He represented himself in his military trial, telling the court that he had, in effect, switched sides in the war in Afghanistan, and that his motive had been to defend the Taliban.
But Mr. Hasan made no attempt to grandstand at his trial, barely questioning prosecution witnesses, calling none of his own, and making no major statements. The lawyers appointed by the court to advise him indicated that his goal was to be executed and become a martyr.
In 2013, he was convicted on all counts and sentenced to death.
The Beltway sniper
John Allen Muhammad masterminded and carried out a series of seemingly random shootings that terrorized the Washington area in 2002, and he and his teenage accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo, were suspected in as many as two dozen killings in several states around the country.
Mr. Muhammad insisted on representing himself at his two trials, in Virginia and Maryland, maintaining that he had nothing to do with the attacks and that he had been framed. His second trial featured the odd spectacle of his cross-examining Mr. Malvo.
Mr. Muhammad was found guilty of all seven murder counts against him, and he was executed by the State of Virginia in 2009. Mr. Malvo was sentenced to life in prison.
The 9/11 terrorist
Accused of being one of the plotters behind the Sept. 11 terror attacks, Zacarias Moussaoui, acted as his own lawyer, requesting access to witnesses and documents that the government said would create a national security risk, leading to years of legal wrangling.
Mr. Moussaoui, who prosecutors claimed had planned to be one of the Sept. 11 hijackers, repeatedly denied involvement in the attacks, but declared “I am a member of Al Qaeda,” and stated in court papers that he was “a Muslim fundamentalist openly hostile to the Jews and the United States of America.”
He eventually pleaded guilty to the charges against him, but still insisted that they were mostly wrong, factually. Rather than being involved on Sept. 11, he said he was planning a different terrorist attack.
He was sentenced to life in prison.
The Long Island Rail Road shooter
Long before he killed six people and wounded 19 on a Long Island Rail Road commuter train in 1993, Colin Ferguson held to an angry, violent and paranoid view of the world, in which Mr. Ferguson, who is black, was routinely conspired against by white people.
Seemingly holding firm to his delusions after the shooting, he rejected his lawyers’ efforts to have him declared mentally unfit, and shunted them aside. Instead, he represented himself at trial, shouting “objection” at odd moments, asking apparently pointless questions of witnesses, referring to himself in the third person, claiming that someone else had committed the shootings with Mr. Ferguson’s gun, and asking the judge to provide money to hire an investigator to find the “real” killer.
He was convicted on all counts and sentenced to 315 years to life in prison.
The serial killer
One of the most prolific serial killers in American history, Ted Bundy defended himself at his murder trials in 1979; one of the lawyers assigned to advise him said he simply could not relinquish control, or admit guilt in return for a life sentence.
The smarts and charm he had always relied on reached their limits in court. At two trials, he was found guilty of a total of three murders and three attempted murders, among other charges.
A suspect in many killings spread across the country, Mr. Bundy had been the subject of a long-running manhunt, escaping from custody twice before being caught for good.
Sentenced to death in the Florida cases, he was executed in 1989. Shortly before he was put to death, he confessed to more than 30 murders, including some that investigators had not linked him to, and officials said they would never know the real toll.
P.C: http://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/05/us/dylann-roof-killers-defense-lawyers.html
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