400
Opinion of the Court
held that a defendant choosing self-representation must do so "competently and intelligently," id., at 835, but we made it clear that the defendant's "technical legal knowledge" is "not relevant" to the determination whether he is competent to waive his right to counsel, id., at 836, and we emphasized that although the defendant "may conduct his own defense ultimately to his own detriment, his choice must be honored," id., at 834. Thus, while "[i]t is undeniable that in most criminal prosecutions defendants could better defend with counsel's guidance than by their own unskilled efforts," ibid., a criminal defendant's ability to represent himself has no bearing upon his competence to choose self-representation.11
B
A finding that a defendant is competent to stand trial, however, is not all that is necessary before he may be permitted to plead guilty or waive his right to counsel. In addition to determining that a defendant who seeks to plead guilty or waive counsel is competent, a trial court must satisfy itself that the waiver of his constitutional rights is knowing and voluntary. Parke v. Raley, 506 U. S. 20, 28-29 (1992) (guilty plea); Faretta, supra, at 835 (waiver of counsel). In this
whether such a defendant is competent to waive the right to counsel that (after Gideon) he under all circumstances has.
11 We note also that the prohibition against the trial of incompetent defendants dates back at least to the time of Blackstone, see Medina v. California, 505 U. S. 437, 446 (1992); Drope v. Missouri, 420 U. S. 162, 171-172 (1975); Youtsey v. United States, 97 F. 937, 940 (CA6 1899) (collecting "common law authorities"), and that "[b]y the common law of that time, it was not representation by counsel but self-representation that was the practice in prosecutions for serious crime," Faretta v. California, 422 U. S., at 823; accord, id., at 850 (Blackmun, J., dissenting) ("self-representation was common, if not required, in 18th century English and American prosecutions"). It would therefore be "difficult to say that a standard which was designed to determine whether a defendant was capable of defending himself" is "inadequate when he chooses to conduct his own defense." People v. Reason, 37 N. Y. 2d, at 354, 334 N. E. 2d, at 574.
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