By Joe Hunt
June 2, 2024
One of the things that happens in America when you invoke Faretta v. California (1975) 422 U.S. 806 and ask to be allowed to self-represent, is the appointment of stand-by counsel. For over a year, stand-by counsel for me was a man called Parker Kelly.
Parker was Irish through and through. 6’4″, lean but muscled, and square jawed, Parker had a way of looking at you with hazel-green eyes that let you know he did not suffer fools gladly.
He was a competent and conscientious man. He never made a promise to me upon which he didn’t deliver. But somehow he did not strike me as the sort that would go into law. One day I told him so. Rather, I explained, he seemed more like the sort of guy that would be a craftsman, like a cabinet maker. He laughed. Turns out that was his hobby.
The job of stand-by counsel is to supplant the self-representing defendant should the defendant become incapable or unwilling to proceed. It wouldn’t do to allow a disobedient defendant to hold a trial-in-progress hostage.
One day Parker and I were in Court. The Honorable Judge Dale Hahn was on the bench. We were there for a motion hearing. Arrayed against us were 3 prosecutors, including Senior Assistant Deputy Attorney General John Vance.
Bass was a tow haired man of about Parker’s size and build. He was speaking for “The People,” as all prosecutors purport to do. And he was doing so harshly. As I recall the issue was reciprocal discovery, the exchange between the parties of all evidence and the names of all witnesses upon which each party intends to rely in their case in chief. He seemed to believe that I wasn’t being appropriately forthcoming. He baldly asserted that Parker had become part of my machinations in derogation of his duty as an ‘officer of the court.’
[Bass] baldly asserted that Parker had become part of my machinations in derogation of his duty as an ‘officer of the court.’
Parker took umbrage at this insult, and loudly interrupted Bass. “I won’t stand for your insults, Mr. Bass.” Bass countered: “Well if you got a problem Parker, we can always settle it in the parking lot.” However, Parker didn’t see it that way. In a trice he was upon Bass and the two were exchanging blows, then grappling. They both fell to the floor, but even so were locked in combat.
I was aghast. I looked from them to the bailiff, and then to the judge but it was seconds before either reacted. With the gavel pounding and the Judge shouting orders, the Bailiff separated the two.
Parker and Bass stood there panting. The black-robed Judge was also on his feet. Pointing the gavel at Bass, then Parker, and then again Bass, he said in some heat: “I don’t want to hear another word about this.” And then with a swirl of his robes the judge was gone, leaving through the door behind his elevated bench and seat.
As I was led away, I remember thinking, “And I’m supposed to be the one with behavioral problems!”
Afterword:
What do you think would have happened if a fight had broken out between two spectators in the audience? Do you think they would have avoided arrest? It’s an old story for mankind. It’s not so much that certain acts are prohibited as that certain classes of people are prohibited from doing them.
It’s an old story for mankind. It’s not so much that certain acts are prohibited as that certain classes of people are prohibited from doing them.
Further, surveying the history of mankind I can’t help but think that the difference between the violent capacity of sane men charged with criminal conduct and that for similar men who have never been so charged, may depend more on the circumstances they have encountered than any difference in basic nature.
Provoke any man sufficiently, let him feel cornered, be the cause of putting something he holds dear in peril, and then insult him for his passivity in the face of these provocations, and see just how many otherwise law-abiding men become violent. Indeed, for the vast majority of humankind’s residency on the planet, men who would not defend their honor, property, and rights were considered pariahs and cowards.
Parker Kelly was later hired by the San Mateo District Attorney’s Office, where he served as a prosecutor for almost 10 years.
