Alleged Courthouse Shooter Now Says He's Not Guilty

Jan. 15, 2008 — -- A man who was convicted of killing his wife and shooting the judge overseeing their divorce is trying to withdraw his guilty plea, claiming that his high-profile lawyers coerced him into confessing.

Lawyers for Darren Mack plan to argue in a court hearing today that his previous lawyers, Scott Freeman and David Chesnoff, neglected his case and then pushed him to lie in court.

"I was broken down into believing that the only way I could save my credibility and have the truth help others was to sacrifice myself and go to prison for the rest of my life for acts that my defense team and I always stood firm that I was not guilty of criminal responsibility," Mack wrote in a sworn statement.

Mack stated that he felt like he was "psychologically raped" by his lawyers.

Chesnoff declined to comment on the allegations, saying he would discuss them when he testifies in court. Freeman did not immediately return a call from ABC News, though he has declined to comment to other news outlets. He is also expected to testify in the hearing.

Mack's new attorney, William Routsis, did not immediately return a call for comment, but he has said he would introduce evidence that another of Chesnoff's clients claimed that the well-known attorney pressured him to plead guilty to a crime he did not commit in an earlier case.

In that case, a year after Michael Nikols pleaded guilty to a drug conspiracy charge, he claimed in a sworn statement that his lawyers, including Chesnoff, applied "unprecedented pressure on me to" plead guilty.

"When I stated that the agreement required me to admit to actions that I did not do, [defense counsel] stated that 'sometimes you have to lie to get what you want,'" he wrote.

Those allegations were never tested in court and Nikols' guilty plea was dismissed on other, technical grounds — which Judge Paul Cassell said would probably result in a "quadrupling of his prison time" after a trial, since the government appeared to have an "overwhelming case" against Nikols.

Cassell added that Nikols "has had some of the best possible defense attorneys advising him along the way."