Let me begin with the truth. I am not a lawyer. I am a criminal defense investigator with decades in the trenches. Over the past year I have been assigned to defendants in Los Angeles County who are facing the most serious charges on the books, including murder, and many of them have chosen to represent themselves.
Everyone knows justice works better, faster, and more fairly when an accused person has competent legal counsel. The Supreme Court locked that principle into our constitutional fabric in Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U.S. 335 (1963), which held that even the poorest among us are entitled to counsel at government expense. California extends that logic to investigators because a lawyer without investigative support is fighting blind.
Then comes the wrecking ball. Faretta v. California, 422 U.S. 806 (1975), empowered defendants to fire their lawyers and take the wheel of their own defense, no matter how untrained, suspicious, or plainly unfit they may be to navigate a criminal courtroom. The result is predictable. Chaos walks in wearing jail blues.
California labels these self-styled lawyers “Pro Per.” The courts assign them Standby Counsel. These lawyers must learn the case, monitor the proceedings, and be ready to take over instantly, yet they are forbidden from giving legal advice. Standby Counsel is expected to sit silent while preventable disasters unfold. It reduces real attorneys to set dressing.
I cannot help but think of the 1987 Iran Contra hearings. Colonel Oliver North had Brendan Sullivan at his side, one of the toughest defense lawyers in America. Each time Sullivan tried to protect his client, the committee tried to shut him down. His response carved its way into legal history: “I’m not a potted plant. I’m here as the lawyer. That’s my job.” Nearly forty years later, that line still hits hard. Today Standby Counsel in California has been relegated to that very potted plant status. Seen but not heard.
Other jurisdictions do not sabotage themselves this way. In Arizona, Advisory Counsel is allowed to advise Pro Pers, guide them, warn them, and prevent courtroom disasters before they happen. It saves time, prevents circus acts, and produces fairer outcomes.
A former Pro Per client of mine illustrated the problem perfectly. He insisted I issue and serve subpoenas to Beyoncé Knowles and Cori “Coco” Gauff in his assault with a deadly weapon case. What testimony he imagined they could offer is known only to the Almighty. This is a perfect snapshot of why real legal guidance is necessary.
Standby Counsel should be reclassified as Advisory Counsel. The courts would run more smoothly. Trials would be fairer. And most Pro Pers would not find themselves walking into a legal slaughterhouse from which there is no return.
Consider that celebrity loving client. He was seventy six years old, wheelchair bound, with a partially paralyzed right arm. A shelter security guard unlawfully seized a bottle of wine from him. He swung a plastic water bottle in resistance. No injury, no request for prosecution, yet the District Attorney filed a way out of line felony charge. That man had no business representing himself, but the choice was not mine to make.
There is yet another problem. Nine out of my last ten attempts to visit inmates at the Los Angeles County Men’s Central Jail were denied because of lockdowns. Lawyers are turned away as well. This cripples the Sixth Amendment right to counsel. There must be a better system because the current one is collapsing under its own weight.
Finally, there is a darker reality I must expose. Many of my Pro Per clients openly admit that they fired their lawyers for reasons that have nothing to do with legal strategy. They know that if they become unrepresented, they will be moved to a special Pro Per unit with a law library and inmates who are far better behaved. They tell me bluntly that they made the choice for their personal safety, not for any legitimate legal purpose. They do not want to be raped or knifed in the general population. That is the unvarnished truth driving many of these so-called strategic decisions, and it is a truth the court system can no longer afford to ignore.
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