Thomas Gaffney Walker v. Christopher Pierce, Warden, et al.

In Faretta v. California, 422 U.S. 806 (1975), this Court held that criminal defendants have a Sixth Amendment right to conduct their own defense and that California courts violated Anthony Faretta’s right by denying his voluntary and intelligent request for self-representation made “weeks before trial.” Although circuit courts agree that Faretta’s holding “clearly established,” for purposes of 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d)(1), that a request made “weeks before trial” is timely, the Ninth Circuit ruled it was reasonable for the California courts to deny Thomas Walker’s request—made two weeks and one day before trial—as untimely because of the “inherent ambiguity” in Faretta’s “weeks before trial” rule. The Ninth Circuit also concluded that Walker’s case was materially distinguishable from Faretta by comparing the timing of the requests in relation to the date the charges were filed rather than in relation to the trial date. The questions presented here are:

1. Did the Ninth Circuit err in holding that Faretta did not “clearly establish,” for purposes of 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d)(1), that a request for selfrepresentation made two weeks before trial is timely?

2. Did the Ninth Circuit err in holding that Walker’s case was materially distinguishable from Faretta by comparing the timeliness of the requests in relation to the date the charges were filed instead of in relation to the trial date?