Inside Report for May 6, 2008

• By STEVEN WARD
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: May 6, 2008 - Page: 7B - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

• Print
• Email
• Save
• Share

• Del.icio.us
• Digg
• Facebook
• Reddit
• 

Anthony Bell put state District Judge Todd Hernandez in a seemingly no-win situation before Bell’s capital murder trial even began.

The day in February when Hernandez granted Bell’s request to fire his court-appointed attorneys and represent himself in his trial was the day Hernandez might have doomed the trial outcome.

Doomed when considering the last thing any judge wants is to have the outcome of a trial overturned by an appellate court.

According to the state’s case in which Bell was convicted, Bell — spurned by his estranged wife who did not want to take him back — went to his wife’s family church in 2006 during a service and shot and killed her grandparents, her great-aunt and her second cousin. All four of those victims were shot in the back of the head. Bell also was convicted of kidnapping his wife, Erica Bell, taking her to an apartment complex and shooting her in the back of the head. She also died.

During the church shooting spree, Bell shot his mother-in-law, Claudia Brown.

Prosecutors Mark Dumaine and Aaron Brooks said in opening statements and closing arguments that Bell’s intention was to leave no adult witness alive.

Brown survived and testified that Bell shot her, her parents and her other relatives.

The jury seemed to have no problem convicting Bell on five counts of first-degree murder and a count of attempted first-degree murder and recommending a death sentence.

Hernandez’s headaches with Bell started months before the trial began when Bell made the first of a half dozen requests for self-representation. All the requests — made between November and February — were either denied or Bell took them back.

On Feb 28, though, Hernandez questioned Bell for an hour before ruling Bell could represent himself and fire his attorneys. Bell wanted to invoke his Sixth Amendment right.

The Sixth Amendment, in addition to guaranteeing the right to appointed counsel, also guarantees a defendant the right to represent himself. Under that amendment, a trial judge may deny the defendant’s request to exercise it if the judge finds that he or she is not competent.

Hernandez’s decision was tough because Bell dropped out of school after the ninth grade. Also, during the lead up to Bell’s March 31 trial, two psychologists tested Bell and found his IQ to be in the low 50s.

In the courts, the benchmark IQ for mental retardation is 70. However, during the trial, neither of the psychologists could say Bell is mentally retarded.