City of Bellevue v. Acrey

This case requires us to decide whether a *205criminal defendant effectively waives his rights to trial by jury and to counsel where, being fully aware of those rights, he proceeds through trial without an attorney and without a request for a jury. We hold that such inaction by a defendant, without an express waiver on the record, does not rise to the level of a knowing and intelligent waiver of these important constitutional rights.

These two consolidated cases arose from the same set of facts. Petitioners Acrey and Bandle were involved in a car accident in November 1981 when their car collided…