Opinion: Defendant has right to self-representation on appeal
State v. Rafay and Burns, No. 80865-1. Petitioner Glen Sebastian Burns was convicted of aggravated first-degree murder in 2004. He appealed and requested to represent himself. The Court of Appeals denied this request. Appealing to the Supreme Court, Burns argues that article I, section 22 of the Washington Constitution guarantees the right of self-representation on appeal. The Supreme Court, with Justice Debra Stephens writing the unanimous opinion, agreed.
Previous decisions have noted that article I, section 22 provides the right of self-representation at trial, but never before had the Court considered whether this right extended to appeals. The relevant portions of the section state:
In criminal prosecutions the accused shall have the right to appear and defend in person, or by counsel, to demand the nature and cause of the accusation against him, to have a copy thereof, to testify in his own behalf, to meet the witnesses against him face to face, to have compulsory process to compel the attendance of witnesses in his own behalf, to have a speedy public trial by an impartial jury of the county in which the offense is charged to have been committed and the right to appeal in all cases . . . .
While there is no right to self-representation on appeal under the U.S. Constitution, the Court analyzed the text of the state constitution and noted that article I, section 22 provides greater protection than its federal counterpart. It guarantees the right to appeal -- the first state constitution to do so. The Court noted, however, that the right to self-representation is not absolute, and an appellate court has broad discretion to fashion an appropriate procedure for implementing this right.
The Court reversed the Court of Appeals and remanded Burns' case for further proceedings.
