Dressed as Thomas Jefferson, 18th century Revolutionary War patriot, lawyer Ira Dennis Hawver faced the Kansas Supreme Court on Friday to answer disciplinary findings he provided ineffective assistance of counsel to a defendant sentenced to death.

The Ozawkie-based attorney was Phillip D. Cheatham Jr.’s defense attorney when Cheatham was convicted and sentenced to death in 2005 in the slaying of one woman, the "Hard 50" in the killing of a second woman and lengthy prison terms for wounding a third woman and two other convictions.

Cheatham is being tried a second time after the Supreme Court overturned his convictions and death penalty sentence in 2013, ruling Cheatham received ineffective assistance of counsel. Following a disciplinary hearing, the disciplinary administrator recommended disbarment of Hawver.

Wearing a white powdered wig, a dark 18th century suit and long white stockings, Hawver sat in the Supreme Court listening to two earlier cases before his disciplinary case was called.

Hawver represented himself during the hearing before the Supreme Court and before the disciplinary administrator's office in November 2013.

Before Hawver spoke to the court, deputy disciplinary administrator Alexander Walczak gave a lengthy list of violations by Hawver when he represented Cheatham.

Hawver knew of a potential alibi defense that allegedly would place Cheatham in Chicago at the time of the two killings in Topeka but did nothing to develop it as a defense, Walczak said.

Hawver didn't know how to trace the location of Cheatham's cellphone calls to establish he might have been outside Topeka when the shootings occurred, Walczak said.

Hawver thought that an agreement signed by Cheatham would release him from any disciplinary action, Walczak said. Walczak urged the justices to disbar Hawver based on intentional violations of his duty to Cheatham.

Hawver said he dressed as Jefferson, his personal hero, to see whether the Kansas Supreme Court would protect his constitutional rights.

"Am I going to get you to protect my rights to defend my client" as I see fit? Hawver said. The First Amendment protects his actions with his clients, and the Sixth Amendment protects the rights of his client, he said.

Hawver said he might not have jumped through every "American Bar Association hoop" but he believed Cheatham was innocent. He referred to ABA guidelines for lawyers defending someone in a death penalty case.

"Phillip Cheatham didn't complain about my performance. You did," Hawver said, referring to the justices.

"I am incompetent!" Hawver said, banging the lectern with his hand. "Anybody who thinks they are representing an innocent person and can't convince a jury is incompetent or ineffective."

Hawver said his constitutional rights and the rights of Cheatham are more important than the lawyer and defendant are individually.

"Our constitutional rights are being eroded, and I ask you to stop," Hawver said, sitting down.

This isn’t the first time Hawver has worn a powdered wig.

When campaigning during unsuccessful bids for U.S. Congress as a Libertarian in 2000 and 2004 and for governor in 2002, Hawver often showed up for campaign events dressed as Jefferson, the primary author of the Declaration of Independence and the third president.

Cheatham is facing retrial in the shooting deaths of two women and the severe wounding of a third. At the first trial, Hawver has said he was following a strategy developed by Cheatham when he described his client as a drug-dealing killer who wouldn’t have needed to fire so many shots to kill the women and who wouldn't have left the third woman alive to identify him.

Cheatham has said he felt Hawver forced him into approving the strategy after the attorney failed to submit an alibi defense.

At the end of his disciplinary hearing in November 2013, Hawver asked the panel to order him not to handle any murder cases but to allow him to handle other cases in his rural Jefferson County law practice.

Earlier this week, Hawver filed a federal lawsuit against the Kansas Supreme Court seeking damages and a court order blocking his possible disbarment.

The Supreme Court took the disciplinary action under advisement.