It's one thing to file an appeal of an assault conviction based on the incompetence of the lawyer at trial. It's quite another to file that appeal when defendant represented himself at trial, and is now complaining of his own incompetence.
The Massachusetts Appeals Court heard that precise appeal this week though, with the defendant now arguing that the trial judge should not have let him defend himself against charges of attempted poisoning and assault, stemming from the defendant's giving a friend a bottle of beer laced with nitric acid.
He makes a compelling case for incompetence: he has tried to file (and then sell) mining claims in various places, such as George's Bank, the asteroid belt, Mars, and the moons of Jupiter. And he's succeeded in filing such claims - in Texas. He's also threatened to sue NASA for trespassing, and had just gotten out of a state mental hospital.
On the other hand, he did a good enough job of representing himself that the jury acquitted him of the more serious attempted poisoning charge.
And in any event, it doesn't matter all that much: he's scheduled to be released from prison this summer.
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