03/29/2006

By STEPHEN MANNING  / Associated Press

A judge ruled Wednesday that John Allen Muhammad can represent himself at his trial for six killings during the 2002 Washington-area sniper attacks, the second time courts have allowed him to present his own defense for the shootings.

Montgomery County Circuit Judge James L. Ryan ruled that Muhammad is competent to act as his own lawyer in his upcoming trial despite a report from a psychiatrist presented by his court-appointed attorneys that he suffers from serious mental illnesses that include a form of schizophrenia.

"There is no reason at all why I should not be able to represent myself in this trial," Muhammad said at a hearing Wednesday. "If I had a mental disorder, then Rosa Parks had a mental disorder, because she didn't get up off that seat."

Muhammad, 45, and Lee Boyd Malvo, 21, are accused of killing 10 people and wounding three during the October 2002 spree. He was convicted in 2003 of murder in Virginia and sentenced to death. During that trial, he briefly fired his lawyers before allowing them to return and finish the case.

Muhammad often rambled as he spoke during Wednesday's two-hour hearing, railing against his lawyers for allegedly ignoring his requests for court records and for refusing to tell the judge that he wanted to represent himself. He eventually wrote a handwritten letter to Ryan, dated March 11, asking for permission to fire his lawyers.

He also vehemently denied the mental health review done Monday by Yale University psychiatrist Dorothy Lewis that found he is delusional and paranoid, and diagnosed him with "schizo-affective schizophrenia." Muhammad's lawyers used the report to ask Ryan to declare Muhammad too incompetent to take over his case.

That put Muhammad in the odd position of agreeing with prosecutors as they argued that the competency claim was just a way to dismiss Muhammad's attempts to remove his lawyers. He nodded his head as Assistant State's Attorney Vivek Chopra asked Ryan to declare him competent, and even once asked if he could go sit on the prosecution side of the courtroom. The judge ignored that request.

"If I am incompetent now, I have been incompetent since the day I was born," Muhammad said.

Ryan said he believed Muhammad understood the circumstances of the case and the gravity of the decision he was making. But he repeatedly warned Muhammad that he was potentially hobbling his case by going forward with no legal training and little courtroom experience.

"I'm trying to tell you it is not a good idea, that there are a lot more disadvantages than advantages," Ryan said.

Ryan refused Muhammad's request to delay the trial, set to begin May 1. The judge also appointed Muhammad's two attorneys, Paul DeWolfe and Brian Shefferman, as standby counsel to assist him as he prepares for the trial. But the two said they would have to consult with the state public defender's office before deciding whether to accept the assignment.

After the hearing, DeWolfe criticized Ryan for not holding a full hearing on Muhammad's mental competency. The attorneys had hoped to present testimony from Lewis and other witnesses to establish Muhammad's mental condition.

"We didn't get a chance to present and document evidence of a serious mental illness," DeWolfe said. "He is very ill, he is mentally ill."

According to court testimony, Muhammad has been actively involved in his defense. He has seven boxes of court records with him in prison and a DVD that contains 30,000 pages of documents from the case. He complained to Ryan that he isn't able to access those records.

He has also often expressed frustration with his defense attorneys. During his trial in Virginia Beach, Va., he removed a different team of lawyers just as the case began, conducting his own opening statement and cross-examining a witness. He allowed his attorneys to return when he said he had an abscess on his tooth that was causing him too much pain.

Lewis wrote that Muhammad was resisting DeWolfe and Shefferman, refusing to tell them his "secret plan" for handling his case. Muhammad said in court that he didn't plan on sharing it.

"I don't have to tell anyone how I plan to represent myself to show I am innocent," he said.

Prosecutors challenged Lewis' diagnosis, saying she had commented to the media before Muhammad and Malvo were arrested that the sniper was likely psychotic. Chopra said her report was biased and crafted to fit that earlier conclusion.

Muhammad faces a possible sentence of life in prison without parole if convicted in the case. Prosecutors had sought the death penalty, but later dropped it. Malvo, already sentenced to life in prison in Virginia, goes on trial in the fall and also faces a possible life sentence.