EDMONTON - It wasn't exactly the stuff of eloquent courtroom drama.
An Alberta man forced to conduct his own defence against a charge of second-degree murder proved so inept that the province's Appeal Court has tossed out his conviction and ordered a new trial.
"The haunting record of the unfolding narrative and the clear display of this appellant's bewilderment compels appellate interference," said the court judgment, released Thursday.
Paul White, 23, was charged with the 2005 killing of Greg Shoemaker, 21, both from the Red Deer area. Shoemaker had been stabbed 34 times.
Trial justice Dennis Thomas convicted White, citing evidence that the then-18-year-old had wounds consistent with a knife fight and that the victim's blood was found on White's shower curtain.
But the trial was marked by repeated delays that began when the defence opened its case by calling White to the stand in May 2007. White testified that it was his girlfriend who had stabbed Shoemaker.
Immediately after that testimony, White's lawyer quit, citing "irreconcilable differences."
Court adjourned until July to allow White's new lawyer to get up to speed, then again until September when the lawyer told court he intended to argue for a mistrial. Additional adjournments delayed things until mid-December, at which time White's second lawyer quit the case.
Court heard other lawyers were willing to represent White, but wouldn't be available for the February dates that Thomas proposed. Thomas rejected a proposal to adjourn until June 2008 and told White the trial would proceed on Feb. 19, 2008, with or without counsel.
When that day came, White represented himself. He called his girlfriend to the stand.
What happened next had a lot more in common with the TV show Judge Judy than Law and Order.
At one point, he asked if he could have a copy of the Criminal Code of Canada, or, as White phrased it, "the big book with all the rules in it."
Elsewhere, he asked the judge: "When (the Crown prosecutor) addressed the fact that I raised good characteristics about myself when I had (my girlfriend) on the stand, was I not supposed to do that?"
White, whose formal education pretty much ended at Grade 9, also asked "What is section 10 and 11 of the Criminal Code? I'm just curious 'cause I don't know."
Thomas had to ask White to stop saying objection so many times. White referred often to his inexperience, saying the prosecutor had been arguing cases "longer than I've been alive."
White, a religious young man who has conducted Bible classes in prison, told Thomas he worried he was at a disadvantage.
"I believe that the Lord will show that I, in fact, did not kill Mr. Shoemaker, but I am nervous I am going to louse it up, my Lord."
White said that he and his mother spent hours on the Internet, trying scrape up enough knowledge to present a legal argument.
"I feel a little dumb, for lack of a better term, (because) I can't argue anything," White told Thomas.
"I can only ask God to relate to what I'm saying and be my lawyer, basically, because I have no training and no knowledge of the law."
The Crown argued that, because Thomas decided that the evidence from both White and his girlfriend was unreliable, it shouldn't make any difference who led the questioning during testimony.
But the Appeal Court ruled that while it's important that cases move ahead, a 21-year-old with no criminal record facing a mandatory life sentence shouldn't have been left on his own.
"The trial transcript evidences in large measure the confusion and ineptness of the appellant," the ruling reads.
The court also found no evidence that White was simply trying to game the system by causing repeated delays.
Alberta Justice must decide whether to seek leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada or simply gear up for a new trial.
White will remain in custody, but move from a federal jail to a remand centre. He may reapply for release on bail.
