Fred Walking Badger, Formerly Known as Fred Delvecchio v. Harold J. Cardwell, Superintendent, Arizona State Prison

The case is before us on appeal from a decision by the district court denying appellant’s petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2254 for a writ of habeas corpus. Our jurisdiction stems from 28 U.S.C. §§ 1291 and 1294(1).

I. FACTS:

In 1972, appellant, Fred Walking Badger, and co-defendant, Jesse Bojorquez, were prisoners in the custody of the State of Arizona at the penitentiary in Florence. They were accused by indictment of assaulting three prison guards on October 8, 1972. In March, 1973, they were brought to trial in state court. Each defendant elected to represent himself, although standby counsel was provided. Their trial lasted six days. Under circumstances which we examine below, appellant was expelled three times and finally barred from further proceedings until the imposition of sentence. On March 14, 1973, the jury returned a verdict of guilty as to both defendants on two counts of assault to commit murder and one count of being prisoners in possession of a weapon. On the basis of this conviction appellant was sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment.

An appeal was taken to the Arizona Supreme Court, which affirmed. Arizona v. Delvecchio, 110 Ariz. 396 , 519 P.2d 1137 (1974). The…