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A state judge agreed Monday to allow former Delaware death row inmate Isaiah McCoy to represent himself in court against a felony robbery charge.
Circuit Judge Todd
Eddins also told McCoy that he already was planning to appoint a licensed lawyer to assist him, after
McCoy asked for a standby counsel.
Eddins said he scheduled Monday’s hearing to ask McCoy about representing himself after learning
McCoy expressed a desire to do so at his arraignment Thursday.
McCoy, 32, and Joshua Pulliam, 33, are accused
of beating and injuring a 40-year-old man in Waikiki on Sept. 3 to steal the
man’s $20,000 wristwatch. They are scheduled to stand trial for second-
degree robbery in front of
Eddins in November. If found guilty, they each face maximum 10-year prison terms.
Eddins told McCoy that he has a constitutional
right to be his own attorney but urged him repeatedly
to let an experienced,
licensed lawyer represent him.
“I know you have sort
of empirical or on-the-job training or experience
representing yourself.
(But) I still believe that the task of representing yourself is extremely difficult,” Eddins said.
McCoy told Eddins he is confident in his ability and decision to represent himself.
“I don’t want to say that
I take this case lightly, whatsoever. But if a prosecutor can actually prove a case against me, your honor,
I would be more than willing to do that 10 years.
I’m a young man, and I would still have a whole
lot of life ahead of me,”
he said.
McCoy said he already was looking for a lawyer to represent him after posting $20,000 bail Sept. 4. Honolulu police rearrested him the following day after an Oahu grand jury indicted him and Pulliam, and
Circuit Judge Shirley Kawamura increased
their bail to $100,000
each.
He said he might change his mind about representing himself if he gets
released and is able to
resume his search for a
private lawyer. McCoy
said he does not want
to be represented by a
public defender.
McCoy fired his public defender on the eve of a trial and represented himself in front of a Delaware state jury that found him guilty of a drug-related
murder. A judge later
sentenced him to death.
He said volunteer lawyers from the Innocence Project got the conviction overturned and got him acquitted on retrial.
Following his release
in January 2017, McCoy moved to Hawaii where a federal grand jury indicted him on sex trafficking charges. McCoy represented himself against
the charges, and in
the middle of trial, prosecutors were forced to drop the case after they learned the case agent withheld evidence and lied.
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