United States v. Lorenzo Nichols, Howard Mason

WALKER, Circuit Judge:

Howard Mason appeals from a judgment of conviction and sentence entered in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York (Edward R. Korman, District Judge) after a jury trial. Mason argues that the district court erroneously (1) assigned him the burden to prove incompetency; (2) found him competent to stand trial in 1989 and to be sentenced in 1994; (3) permitted him to waive his right to attend trial before finding him competent to waive that right; and (4) tried him in absentia without securing a knowing and voluntary waiver on the record of his…