Chris Cornell is appealing his conviction for robbery, assault and the attempted murder of peace officers, and seeks a court-appointed lawyer to handle the case.

Cornell, currently serving time in a British Columbia prison, is also appealing his 11.5-year sentence for those offences and the long-term supervision order he will be on once he’s released.

He filed his appeal on time, within one month after his sentencing last November. It’s based on the following grounds:

• the trial judge erred in dismissing his lawyer’s pre-trial motions to ensure that a certain number of First Nations people were on the jury;

• the Crown conveyed “extremely prejudicial information” to the jury during cross-examination by asking Cornell if “F*** the police” – a statement he has tattooed on his chest – is indicative of his attitude towards police;

• the judge erred in law by charging the jury regarding attempted murder, because “There is a complete lacks of mens rea for that offence”; and

• at sentencing, the judge accepted evidence from a psychiatrist that Cornell should be supervised for 10 years after his release, but “effectively ignored” the psychiatrist’s testimony that Cornell behaved well during his last year in custody.

The 33-year-old seeks an acquittal or a new trial.

Cornell was sentenced last fall for his role in a 2011 crime spree during which he and then-girlfriend Jessica Johnson broke into a Haines Junction general store, assaulted the custodian, attempted to steal the store’s safe, fled down the Alaska Highway and shot at an RCMP officer and conservation officer in pursuit.

A jury found him guilty of eight charges in October 2013.

David Tarnow, the lawyer who represented Cornell at his trial and sentencing, is appearing on his behalf this week in a B.C. courtroom to seek court-appointed counsel for the appeal; that is, to have Canada’s attorney general pay for Cornell’s lawyer.

This differs from legal aid, a system administered by the Yukon Legal Services Society (YLSS) with federal and territorial funding.

When a person is denied legal aid for an appeal, the Criminal Code permits him or her to seek a court-appointed lawyer.

The YLSS will not be funding a lawyer for Cornell’s appeal.

Executive director Nils Clarke said Cornell has had legal aid lawyers in the past, though he “parted ways” with two or three of them and expressed they were not acceptable to him.

Despite this history, Tarnow said Cornell requested legal aid for his appeal late last year.

“We wrote to see if (the society) would reconsider, they said no, and now we’re in the Court of Appeal to see if they will appoint counsel,” he told the Star last week, adding he expects to be Cornell’s lawyer for the appeal.

“He has a right to appeal and he has to somehow pay for it.”

But Clarke said that in the same letter that requested legal aid, Tarnow reaffirmed Cornell’s disinterest in working with legal aid lawyers.

He was “asking us to reconsider but reinforcing his lack of confidence, sort of saying that yes, we need something from legal aid but anything that legal aid might consider would be insufficient or unsatisfactory,” Clarke said.

So he responded: “‘If Mr. Cornell has the same position that he had two years ago, then it’s our position that legal aid will continue to not be able to assist Mr. Cornell.’

“So that’s a roundabout way of saying, I guess, he didn’t actually sign the dotted line for a (legal aid) application again.”

Essentially, Cornell needed “official denial” of legal aid, Clarke said. This way, he can attempt to have Tarnow funded by the government.

“If we were specifically asked to process another application and consider it, I guess we wouldn’t refuse, but I anticipate we would reach an impasse with Mr. Cornell fairly quickly again,” Clarke said.

Clarke said legal aid assistance will typically be withdrawn after an accused fires two different lawyers. In rare cases, a third lawyer may be offered.

‘We’re not obligated to assist people to the absolute bitter, bitter, bitter end,” Clarke said. “We have to control our own process.”

He said the society receives 1,700 to 1,800 applications for legal aid each year, and is able to provide it in 95 to 97 per cent of cases.

“We try to assist as many people as we possibly can,” Clarke said.

“Legal aid shouldn’t be forced to assist people indefinitely under difficult circumstances. But we try to be as flexible as we possibly can and we certainly err on the side of trying to help people.”

Clarke said at some point, legal aid lawyers need to focus their time and resources on the clients they can help.

“(It) goes back to the question: how much grief does legal aid have to endure, I suppose, in trying to discharge its duties and provide service to so many applicants, just dealing with this one difficult file? At what point are you allowed to walk away and say, ‘We’ve got other things to do. We tried.’?”

Under the Criminal Code, a court of appeal may assign counsel when “it appears desirable in the interests of justice that the accused should have legal assistance and where it appears that the accused has not sufficient means to obtain that assistance.”

Tarnow represented Cornell at his sentencing last year after a successful application for state-funded counsel.

Cornell’s appeal is not expected to be heard for several months.