Now that we’ve established there are three pillars by which a judge must use to determine that an individual wishes to represent himself, the Courts go on to adopt an additional requirement, a Michigan Court Rule, to provide additional protection for BOTH the Defendant and the Judge. After all, what we can’t have is a Defendant represent himself at his trial, lose the court case, and their appeal making the allegation he had “ineffectiveness of counsel”. That would make a mockery of the entire judicial system. So, here we will conclude our conversation about when/why/how a Judge can determine that the Defendant legitimately wishes to act as his own attorney during his criminal trial.
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