After his conviction for criminal sexual assault, a Duluth man is arguing that he deserves a new trial because his lawyer was so bad.
But Steven Oppel represented himself.
According to the Duluth News Tribune, Oppel said he couldn't afford a private attorney and didn't trust the public defenders.
He was charged with assaulting a pre-teen girl and a jury took just three and a half hours to find him guilty of first and second degree criminal sexual assault. He was sentenced Tuesday to 12½ years in prison.
He says the court was to blame for the conviction by letting him represent himself. The story says: he was “100 percent not guilty of these charges” and he'd been limited to one hour of sleep a night during his trial and he was unprepared, incompetent and ineffective in trying to represent himself.
However, the story notes that Judge John DeSanto [who is best known for his prosecution of Roger Caldwell and Marjorie Caldwell Hagen for the Congdon murders in the 1970s]:
had reminded Oppel that at several pretrial hearings he had repeatedly advised Oppel that he should have legal counsel. Before the trial started, DeSanto read Oppel his constitutional rights, made sure that he understood the charges and potential consequences and the expectations of the court if he represented himself. DeSanto also appointed Duluth defense attorney Keith Shaw as advisory counsel to Oppel. Shaw answered Oppel’s legal questions during the trial but didn’t argue the case to the jury.
Maybe he should ask for help on the appeal.