Judge Nixes Murder Defendant's Efforts to Fire Counsel, Excludes Him From His Own Trial
Unhappy with the court-appointed defense lawyers in his capital murder case, Eric DeShann Floyd told a Pennsylvania judge Monday that he’d rather be executed than continue with his current attorneys.
But Common Pleas Court Judge Renee Cardwell Hughes rejected Floyd’s request to fire his lawyers and let him represent himself, telling the accused cop-killer that he was being “irrational” and that his lead lawyer, William Bowe, is one of the best in Philadelphia, reports the Philadelphia Inquirer.
By yesterday, she had held Floyd in contempt, telling him that he would have to watch his own trial on closed-circuit television because of his disruptive behavior during jury selection, the newspaper reports in another article.
This morning, Floyd punched Bowe twice after the judge offered him the opportunity to attend his own trial if he would agree to behave, the latest Inquirer article reports. Bowe slumped to the side after Floyd struck him behind the ear, and the 35-year-old defendant hit his lawyer again before sheriff’s deputies removed Floyd from the courtroom.
Bowe, who did not lose consciousness, was taken to a hospital for observation. And Hughes announced in court this afternoon that the jury selection will resume on Friday, with Floyd watching his own trial on closed-circuit television from a holding cell outside of the courtroom.
“Mr. Bowe is tired but he will be in good health when we resume this case on Friday,” the judge stated.
Floyd is now facing assault charges concerning the attack on Bowe, reports the Associated Press.
Floyd told Hughes on Monday that Bowe rubbed him the wrong way and was “deceiving” him, had pressured him to take a plea deal in which he would get life in prison and was refusing to call some witnesses, according to the Inquirer’s initial article on the trial. In response, the judge told Floyd that the witnesses he wanted to call would “bury” him and that prosecutors were seeking to get them to testify.
“I don’t care, it’s my life,” Floyd responded. “I have the right to represent myself, don’t I?”
A Philadelphia Daily News article provides more details about the first-degree murder case against Floyd and a co-defendant.
