PORTLAND, Ore. — The Oregon Court of Appeals has overturned the conviction of a former University of Oregon student who represented himself during a 2012 criminal trial in Eugene.
The panel said in an opinion released Thursday that the young man from Korea didn’t understand the risk of rejecting a public defender and acting as his own lawyer. Therefore, his request to waive counsel should not have been accepted.
Court records show jurors found Donghwan Kim guilty of misdemeanor assault, stalking and violating a court’s stalking protective order.
A public defender who appealed the conviction argued that Kim’s conversation with a judge before trial should have raised red flags about the defendant’s mental health, English language skills and understanding of the legal system.
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