Robinson

I. Background

At trial, Robinson’s counsel said, “my client wants to ter- minate my representation; wants to represent himself.” The trial court replied, “Well, okay. We’ll bring [Robinson] out. That’s not going to happen,” and proceeded as though Robin- son had made a Marsden motion to substitute counsel.2 After Robinson was brought back into the courtroom, the trial court held a hearing on the motion to substitute counsel, and denied it. The judge, however, never conducted a hearing on Robin- son’s request to represent himself.

After the jury convicted Robinson, he appealed to the Cali- fornia Court of Appeal, then sought review by the California Supreme Court. In those appeals, Robinson’s only federal constitutional claim was that his “third strike” sentence of 25 years to life for possession of less than one-hundred dollars worth of cocaine amounted to cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment.3 Before the district court, Rob- inson, then pro se, raised for the first time a claim related to the trial court’s response to Robinson’s counsel’s statement that Robinson wanted to terminate his counsel’s representa- tion and represent himself (errors in…