The California Supreme Court vacated a sentence of death and remanded the action to trial court for further proceedings. The court held that a defendant did not knowingly and intelligently waive his right to counsel for purposes of a hearing on his application to modify a death verdict where the trial court effectively encouraged self-representation by espousing the defendant’s intimate familiarity with the lengthy history of his case while at the same time failing to explain the risks of self-representation.
In 1981, a jury convicted Michael Burgener of the first degree murder. The California Supreme Court affirmed the guilt judgment but reversed the penalty because defense counsel, at Burgener’s instruction, had not presented any mitigating evidence or argument at the penalty trial.
