I, Jerry  Wayne Morgan, declare that the following is a typewritten copy of a handwritten statement that I read into the Court Record at my trial on March 3, 1998:

    As of today’s date, I have been in custody for these charges 77 days.  I have been visited by my Court appointed Attorney only three times.  The last of these three occurred only last Sunday, and then only after I moved the Court to dismiss him as my Attorney.  That was by far, the longest visit of the three.  The other two were of approximately 30 minutes duration.  These
visits are a matter of County Jail records and are, therefore, verifiable by the Court.  Even with this minimal Attorney access, my Attorney has repeatedly advised me that I am facing the potential of being sentenced to “25 years to life,” mostly because of a “three strikes” provision in current law, that I am told would include a conviction in the state of Arkansas 28 years ago!!

    There has been a significant jurisdictional issue regarding allegations that I battered the only percipient witness in my trial, this allegedly having occurred prior to the arson charge, and in Tehama County.

    To this day, my Attorney has not made it clear to me whether I am facing the liability of prosecution for co-habitant abuse for the Tehama County allegation in this trial, here in Shasta County, for merely the liability of “state of mind” evidence introduction stemming from the Tehama Co. allegations.

    To this day, my Attorney has not even shown me and reviewed with me any police reports or any discoverable information.

    To the day, to my knowledge, my Attorney has filed No pretrial motions of any type, but particularly to address issues of jurisdiction or evidence relevance, nor has he made any verbal or written requests for discoverable information as defined in the California Evidence and Penal Codes, to the prosecution.

    Although he has informed me that the allegedly battered co-habitant will be produced as a prosecution witness, he has failed to obtain, (or at least to advise me) of discoverable information concerning the nature of her testimony so that I might effectively prepare an affirmative defense.

    These outrageous circumstances have resulted in the denial of my Constitutional rights to due process and to legal counsel.

    I therefore respectfully move the Court to declare this trial a mis-trial and dismiss Mr. B___ as my defense Attorney.

    Attached is the original handwritten document that was prepared from Shasta County Jail.

    I declare under the penalty of perjury, under the laws of the State of California, that the foregoing is true and correct.

Dated:___________________________          _____________________________