Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/List of people who have acted as their own criminal defense attorney


 * The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review).  No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was   delete. -- Cirt (talk) 01:53, 17 June 2011 (UTC)

List of people who have acted as their own criminal defense attorney

 * – ( View AfD View log )

as per WP:INDISCRIMINATE. this is an indiscriminate list that seems quite biased to USA (with a few notable exceptions like Slobodan Milošević). surely there would be many people in non English speaking countries such as China and Russia and ex Soviet states that would fall into this. to link into one articles is pointless and unencyclopaedic. LibStar (talk) 06:28, 9 June 2011 (UTC)
 * Delete as nom. The differences between legal jurisdictions make this especially problematic, as do changes in practice over time. Some people will have dismissed their lawyer before or during trial, some could not afford one, some will have believed that they could do a better job, and in some cases the court will have required the defendant to answer the charges directly anyway or not permitted representation of their choice. In a few cases there will have been a court appointed lawyer present to represent their interests even though the defendant refused to accept representation. And 'prominent people' is ambiguous, as some are notable only for their offence, other independently so. Is this to be a list of everyone who is notable in Wikipedia terms who has ever appeared as defendant in a criminal trial without being represented by a lawyer? Impossible to maintain and difficult to agree criteria for inclusion. I'm not convinced of its usefulness if there were such a list. --AJHingston (talk) 09:43, 9 June 2011 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Crime-related deletion discussions.  — • Gene93k (talk) 19:38, 9 June 2011 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Law-related deletion discussions.  — • Gene93k (talk) 19:39, 9 June 2011 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Lists of people-related deletion discussions.  — • Gene93k (talk) 19:39, 9 June 2011 (UTC)


 * Delete. An ambitious undertaking. Not a chance that it will ever be a comprehensive list of notables therefore WP:SNOW. Although the idea is an interesting one the undertaking is an impossible dream.  Nipson anomhmata   (Talk)
 * Delete. AJHingston provided an excellent set of reasons, with which I concurr. I would only add that this list is really little more than trivia.Agent 86 (talk) 00:36, 10 June 2011 (UTC)
 * I was going to suggest that it be refactored into a U.S.-specific list (no opinion on whether it's of any significance in any other jurisdictions), but then I noticed that there already is such a list, at Pro se legal representation in the United States. postdlf (talk) 03:12, 10 June 2011 (UTC)
 * Strong Delete: What? Everyone?  Ever?  Huh, I didn't have an attorney when I went to court over a speeding ticket in the mid-1980s ... does that mean I get into the article too?  This might not be as indiscriminate a list as, say, List of people who wore the color mauve yesterday, but it's not too far off the mark.   Ravenswing  05:53, 10 June 2011 (UTC)
 * Only if you're notable. I'm guessing you're not.  Lugnuts  (talk) 08:04, 10 June 2011 (UTC)


 * Keep And expand with context. This could be a very interesting list of major notable figures who for one reason or another have acted as their own defence attorney. More reasons behind Slobodan Milošević, Ted Bundy, etc could make this into a good article. This should be tagged as being unref'd, as AfD is not for cleanup.  Lugnuts  (talk) 08:04, 10 June 2011 (UTC)
 * this AfD was never intended to be a clean up but a question of the notability of this article and fitness to be a WP article. there's no doubt sources can be find to show notable people that self represented in courts. LibStar (talk) 14:04, 10 June 2011 (UTC)
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.