Richard Joseph Hirschfield v. Alice Payne

In this habeas corpus appeal, we must decide whether a criminal defendant’s motions to represent himself at trial in state court were improperly denied.

I

Richard Joseph Hirschfield was convicted of first-degree rape of a child and first-degree child molestation in the Superior Court for King County, Washington, on May 30, 1997. Evidence at trial suggested that he molested two girls, aged nine and ten respectively, at a public swimming pool. As the details of the evidence against Hirschfield are not relevant to our decision in this case, we do not elaborate them here.

A

Before that trial began, at a hearing before Superior Court Judge Schindler on April 7, 1997, Hirschfield moved to discharge his court-appointed attorney and to represent himself. At that time his trial was officially set to begin the following day, although there had already been some discussion between the trial judge and the attorneys suggesting that the trial would have to be postponed for unrelated scheduling reasons. Hirschfield argued to Judge Schindler that proceeding pro se was “the only way that I’m going to get the defense that I require, an effective defense.” He suggested that his attorney had not…