Opinion of the Court — United States v. Yazzie

This writing

Type: Opinion of the Court
Filed: March 15, 2002
Case: United States v. Yazzie
Case status: Decided

Source No authoring judge could be established for this writing, either from provider metadata or from the signature line of the court's published opinion. Benchlight shows the gap rather than guessing at an author.

Opening text

The first passage of the document, as extracted by the source provider.

MEMORANDUM ** Defendant-Appellant Aaron Yazzie was convicted of first degree murder in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1151 and 1153 (committed within Indian country). He was sentenced to life imprisonment and now appeals the district court’s denial of a motion for new counsel, the admission of evidence of prior bad acts, and admission of hearsay statements. Appellant argues that the district court erred in: (1) denying his motion for new counsel when he and his attorney had an irreconcilable conflict that denied appellant the right to counsel under the Sixth Amendment; (2) rejecting appellant’s motion in limine to bar evidence of irrelevant prior bad acts; (3) admitting hearsay statements under the medical examination exception. I. Defendant Yazzie’s contention on appeal is two-fold: he alleges that he was denied his Sixth Amendment right to effective counsel because of an irreconcilable conflict between himself and his appointed trial counsel; and second, that the district court conducted an inadequate inquiry into his complaint regarding counsel and, therefore, erred in failing to substitute counsel. We apply the same test to assess whether the district court erred in failing to subst…

Source Extract supplied by CourtListener. Benchlight does not host the document — read the authoritative text in the court's own PDF.