Faretta v. California
| Faretta v. California | |
|---|---|
| Argued November 19, 1974 Decided June 30, 1975 | |
| Full case name | Anthony Pasquall Faretta v. State of California |
| Citations | 422 U.S. 806 (more) 95 S. Ct. 2525; 45 L. Ed. 2d 562; 1975 U.S. LEXIS 83 |
| Case history | |
| Prior | On writ of certiorari to the Court of Appeal of California, Second Appellate District, 415 U.S. 975 (1974). |
| Holding | |
| A criminal defendant in a state proceeding has a constitutional right to knowingly refuse the aid of an attorney. | |
| Court membership | |
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| Case opinions | |
| Majority | Stewart, joined by Douglas, Brennan, White, Marshall, Powell |
| Dissent | Burger, joined by Blackmun, Rehnquist |
| Dissent | Blackmun, joined by Burger, Rehnquist |
Faretta v. California, 422 U.S. 806 (1975), was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that criminal defendants have a constitutional right to refuse counsel and represent themselves in state criminal proceedings.
Quoting Adams v. United States ex rel. McCann (1942), the Court reasoned that, "The right to assistance of counsel and the correlative right to dispense with a lawyer's help are not legal formalisms... To deny an accused a choice of procedure in circumstances in which he, though a layman, is as capable as any lawyer of making an intelligent choice, is to impair the worth of great Constitutional safeguards by treating them as empty verbalisms. … [T]o deny him in the exercise of his free choice the right to dispense with some of these safeguards … is to imprison a man in his privileges, and call it the Constitution."