United States v. Benjamin Franklin Wright

Benjamin Franklin Wright was convicted by a jury on a three-count indictment for violating sections 7203 and 7205 of the Internal Revenue Code (failure to file tax return and supplying an employer with a fraudulent withholding exemption certificate, respectively). Before the trial commenced Wright requested that he be represented by a person who was not a member of any bar. The judge advised appellant that he had a right to be represented by an attorney of his choice or to represent himself if he chose, but that he could not be represented by a person who was not a qualified attorney admitted to practice. The right to have counsel appointed by the court in the event the defendant could not afford an attorney was carefully explained. Appellant elected to act as his own counsel.

On appeal Wright claims that the refusal to permit representation by an unlicensed person whom he designated was a denial of the right to assistance of counsel. We disagree. The sixth amendment’s guarantee of the right of counsel does not require that one who is not an attorney be permitted to act, or try to act, as counsel. Whether a district court may in its discretion permit a nonattorney to act as…