25 Wash. App. 358 - State v. Watkins’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

6 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 6 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “1. Every defendant in a criminal case has an independent constitutional right to represent himself or herself without the assistance of legal counsel. . . . 2. In order to exercise this right, it is incumbent on the defendant to request it, and the court is not initially required to advise a defendant of that right. . . . 3. The right must be exercised knowingly and intelligently. . . . 4. A demand to defend pro se must be stated unequivocally. . . . Even when the right is unequivocally asserted, however, it may still be subsequently waived by words or conduct. . . . 5. The demand must be timely made. . . . 6. The right to proceed pro se cannot be used as a means of unjustifiably delaying a scheduled trial or hearing or to obstruct the orderly administration of justice. 7. The right of self-representation cannot be permitted to justify a defendant disrupting a hearing or trial, or as a license to a pro se defendant to not comply with relevant rules of procedural and substantive law. . . . 8. Standby counsel may be appointed even over objection by the accused to aid the accused if and when he or she requests help, and to be available to represent the accused in the event that termination of the defendant's self-representation becomes necessary . . .”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 31 Wash. App. 304 - State v. Jessup