Facts
On June 24, 2007, during an altercation, X. held a handgun against his former girlfriend A.A. and pulled the trigger. She sustained a gunshot wound. He then pointed the weapon at her sister B.A., but did not pull the trigger.
The High Court of the Canton of Zurich found X. guilty of attempted premeditated murder in the second instance and sentenced him to 10 ½ years of imprisonment.
X. appeals to the Federal Supreme Court and requests that the case be remanded to the lower court for a retrial of the appeal. He claims that his court-appointed defense counsel, Attorney C., had already indicated in June 2010 and in the appeal brief of May 2011 that he considered X. to be guilty. This, he argues, had significantly disrupted the relationship of trust.
Considerations
According to the case law of the Federal Supreme Court on Article 29(3) and Article 32(2) of the Federal Constitution, the accused person represented by court-appointed counsel has a fundamental right to competent, committed, and effective representation of their party interests. A request for the replacement of the court-appointed defense counsel must be granted if, for objective reasons, the proper representation of the accused person's interests can no longer be guaranteed.
The Swiss Code of Criminal Procedure goes beyond this practice in Article 134(2). According to this, the court-appointed defense can be transferred to another person if the relationship of trust between the accused person and their court-appointed defense is significantly disrupted or if effective defense is no longer guaranteed for other reasons.
In the present case, the relationship of trust between X. and his…