Why some alleged Capitol rioters are acting as their own attorneys
More than 100 people charged in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol have pleaded guilty. But others are promising to take their cases to trial, including some who have decided to represent themselves.
In the 1980s, Laurie Levenson was an Assistant U.S. Attorney prosecuting a case in federal court in Los Angeles.
In that case the defendant decided to go "pro se" and represent himself.
When it came time for him to testify, the judge did not allow the defendant to just give a speech in his own defense. Instead, the judge instructed the defendant to play both parts: attorney and witness.
"The defendant asked himself the question," Levenson recalled recently, "goes up on the witness stand and then says, 'Can you repeat the question?'"
Levenson, who is now a professor at Loyola Law School, often mentions that story in class, not only because her students get a laugh, but because it illustrates how pro se cases have a tendency to create a
