Via our hinterlands correspondent, Kathleen Casey, the  Buffalo News has no kind words to say about Muzzammil S. Hassan, known locally as Mo, who really wants to go pro se at trial.  He’s on trial for murder.

Hassan, 46, a former banker and cable television entrepreneur has been jailed since he turned himself in to Orchard Park police an hour after he allegedly beheaded his third wife, Aasiya Zubair Hassan, 37, in their Orchard Park cable station office on Feb. 12, 2009.

What distinguishes this trial from others is its high profile, there not being too many really sexy murder trials in the hinterlands, and that Mo has the wherewithal to pay top dollar for great legal talent.  Instead, he’s flying solo, and the locals are outraged.

Local trial and criminal defense lawyers have many adjectives to describe the attempt by Muzzammil S. Hassan to represent himself in his own murder trial: arrogant, ignorant, disastrous, stupid. …

Well, you get the picture.

Legal experts following one of the most riveting murder trials in Buffalo history express uniform disapproval of Hassan’s attempt to serve as his own lawyer and showing contempt for his trial by stalking out of court.

Stalking out of court?  What’s that about?  Lawyers don’t get to vote with their feet over a pro se defense.  But some good lawyers are willing to say some bad things to the newspaper.

“I think everything he’s done is going to play into the hands of the prosecution,” said defense lawyer Paul J. Cambria Jr.

Joseph J. Terranova, a criminal defense lawyer who has probably tried more murder cases than any other lawyer in the region, was even more blunt.

“It’s pathetic, and it’s so absolutely counterproductive,” he said. “Why not just slit your throat in front of the jury?”

Abatement by reason of death?  Well, it would work, but it’s not exactly the advice I would give.  The real problem here, apparently, is that Mo thinks he knows better than the lawyers how to beat the case.

Defense attorneys say working with an uncooperative client always is a miserable experience, particularly when those clients think they know better than their lawyer about how to mount a strong defense.

When Hassan was hunting for a high-profile defense lawyer, Terranova said, many turned him down because they anticipated he would be too difficult to manage as a client. And that has proven to be the case.

One of the most common aspects of defending a high profile case with a defendant who has achieved a measure of success in life is that they misattribute their success to brilliance in all things.  Mo may have made some money in cable, and from their believes he’s smarter than the lawyers.

“I think everyone in their career has encountered, or will encounter, a client that tries to run the defense because it’s their case and they are intimately involved in the case,” trial lawyer Terrence M. Connors said. “The client can know the facts and what occurred, but how to properly convey that to a jury is solely, and should solely be, in a lawyer’s domain.”

Terry, of course, knows whereof he speaks.  Whether it’s the defendant charged with a robbery, who insists that the lack of video evidence means he can’t be convicted, despite the eyewitness testimony of three nuns who watched the whole thing, two of whom taught the defendant in third grade, or the defendant with the doctoral degree who believes that the nullification article he read on a political website guarantees his acquittal, defendants come up with bizarre ideas.  And they demand that the lawyers do their bidding.  After all, it’s their life, right?

Mo plans to defend his beheading using the “battered spouse” defense, his being in such grave fear of his wife after suffering years of abuse at her hand.

So far, [District Attorney Frank A.] Sedita said, prosecutors have received notice only that Hassan plans to pursue a “battered spouse” justification defense, essentially stating that as a long-abused husband, he feared for his life and the only way he believed he could save himself was to kill his wife.

The consensus amongst the experienced criminal defense lawyers is that Mo would do better to pursue an “extreme emotional disturbance” defense.  This didn’t sit well with Mo, as it wouldn’t produce an acquittal, but only a conviction on a reduced charge.  Mo isn’t interested in a lesser conviction.

Hassan, however, has said he believes he can walk out of court a free man if he can tell the jury about the “torture” and “humiliation” he says he endured at the hands of his wife.

Every once in a while, a pro se defendant who eschews all legal advice and decides to go it alone manages to pull off an unbelievable coup, a victory where none should be possible.  They refuse to heed the “experts,” preferring instead to go for broke, to put it all on the line, to take their life into their own hands and shoot their wad.  Every once in a while.  Most of the time, indeed that vast majority of the time, this is the quickest route to a slam-dunk conviction without even the slightest chance at winning.

But it makes for a great spectacle.  Imagine if Mo pulls this off?  Just don’t bet on it.

Update:  Breaking news from Buffalo,  Judge Thomas P. Franczyk has ruled  that Mo is the captain of his own ship:

10:36 a.m.: Franczyk: “Bottom line is [Hassan] does have the right to steer his own ship even if unwittingly he steers it into an iceberg.” Judge is going to grant Hassan’s request to represent himself but wants to make sure Hassan knows some of the rules. Schwartz is going to stay on as an advisor.

10:41 a.m.: Judge is getting assurances from Hassan that Hassan will follow the rules of counsel.

Would this not make for a great sitcom or what?