Suge Knight refuses to let his lawyer quit upcoming retrial
Suge Knight‘s lawyer recently failed in his attempt to withdraw from the Death Row founder’s retrial over the hit-and-run death of Terry Carter in 2015. Now, Knight has also refused to let him go.
His longtime attorney, David Kenner, claimed he could no longer represent him after discovering something “disturbing” on the phone and felt “anxious about being able to competently and energetically try this case.”
In a Los Angeles courtroom on April 21st, Kenner said, “I am not ready because I’ve had a remedial breakdown in communication with Mr Knight. There’s a conflict of interest. It is my position that the court should relieve me as counsel, and Mr Knight should be able to try this case with counsel of his choice.”
However, Judge Thomas Long had none of it, as long as Knight wanted to keep him on board. “Your motion to withdraw has been denied, and I stand by that ruling,” he said. “It seems to me there’s no reason you can’t do the best you can to cross-examine and examine witnesses and present Mr Knight’s defence as well as possible.”
He added, “Of course, Mr Knight is always free to remove you as counsel anytime he chooses. That’s up to him.”
According to Rolling Stone, Knight appeared in court wearing sunglasses and a zip-up jacket while eating something he tossed into his mouth during the hearing. When he put his hand up to catch the judge’s attention, Long told him it wasn’t standard practice for defendants to interrupt.
In response, Knight claimed Kenner had cut communication with him. “But I don’t talk to my counsel,” he said. “I’m trying to communicate on the phone, and no one takes my phone calls. I’m not trying to be disrespectful, I just want to have a fair trial, and I need to communicate,” he said.
“Over the weekend, I would call, and nobody ever takes my calls. If the court could let Mr Kenner know I called to talk, and we need to communicate.”
The judge allowed Kenner to have an unrecorded call with Knight at the end of each court day after Kenner stated, “The reason I have not been talking is because Mr Knight calls on a recorded line, and I don’t like discussing legal strategy on a recorded line.”
Knight is currently serving a 28-year prison sentence at the RJ Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego County, California.