Fitzgerald

A jury found defendant Romaine Fitzgerald guilty of first degree murder of Barge Miller and fixed the penalty at death for that offense. A motion for a new trial was denied by the court.

Defendant contends that (1) the evidence was insufficient to sustain the conviction; (2) the trial court violated his constitutional rights by denying his motion for a change, of counsel and for a continuance in connection therewith; (3) he was denied the effective assistance of counsel; (4) the trial court abused its discretion in denying his motion for pro se privileges at the jail pending and during trial; (5) the prosecutor committed prejudicial misconduct; (6) the trial judge committed prejudicial error in his comments regarding burden of proof; (7) his identification by witness James Coleman was the result of the deprivation of his constitutional rights to counsel and was impermissibly suggestive; (8) the trial court’s denial of his pretrial motion to suppress a fingerprint exemplar violated his constitional rights; (9) the court erred in permitting the use of a manikin made in the likeness of the victim to illustrate the medical testimony.

A number of additional contentions'are…