Case Title: Ex parte State of Alabama.

Citation: 

Docket Number: 1150336

State: alabama

Court: Alabama Supreme Court

Date: 2016-03-18T00:00:00Z

Document:
Rel: 03/18/2016
Notice: This opinion is subject to formal revision before publication in the advance
sheets of Southern Reporter.  Readers are requested to notify the Reporter of Decisions,
Alabama Appellate Courts, 300 Dexter Avenue, Montgomery, Alabama 36104-3741 ((334) 229-
0649), of any typographical or other errors, in order that corrections may be made before
the opinion is printed in Southern Reporter.
SUPREME COURT OF ALABAMA
OCTOBER TERM, 2015-2016
____________________
1150336
____________________
Ex parte State of Alabama
PETITION FOR WRIT OF CERTIORARI
TO THE COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEALS
(In re: Richard Eugene Demouey
v.
State of Alabama)
(Mobile Circuit Court, CC-13-4143 and CC-13-4144;
Court of Criminal Appeals, CR-14-0289)
MAIN, Justice.
WRIT DENIED.  NO OPINION.
Moore, C.J., and Bolin and Murdock, JJ., concur.  
Bryan, J., concurs specially.
1150336
BRYAN, Justice (concurring specially).
Richard Eugene Demouey was convicted of two counts of
first-degree sexual abuse of a child under the age of 12, see
§ 13A-6-69.1, Ala. Code 1975, and one count of first-degree
sodomy, see § 13A-6-63, Ala. Code 1975.  Demouey was sentenced
to 20 years' imprisonment for the first-degree sodomy
conviction and to 10 years' imprisonment for 
each first-degree
sexual-abuse conviction; the sentences were to be served
concurrently.  During the trial, the victim, who was 14 years
old at the time of trial, was required to testify about the
abuse Demouey subjected her to when she was only 11 years old. 
On motion of the State, the trial court closed the courtroom
to all spectators during the victim's testimony.  On appeal to
the Court of Criminal Appeals, Demouey's convictions were
overturned because the State had failed to make a showing on
the record that a total closure of the courtroom met the
requirements of the four-prong test set forth in Waller v.
Georgia, 467 U.S. 39 (1984).
The Court of Criminal Appeals throughly addressed the
issue in its opinion, Demouey v. State, [Ms. CR-14-0289,
September 18, 2015] ___ So. 3d ___ (Ala. Crim. App. 2015), and
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1150336
I see no reason to delve into the specific requirements of
Waller.  Suffice it to say that it was the State's burden, as
the party moving to close the courtroom during the victim's
testimony, to ensure that the Waller requirements were met and
to ensure that the trial judge was aware of each requirement
so that any later obtained conviction would not be subject to
reversal based on the failure to comply with Waller. Waller,
467 U.S. at 48.  The State failed to do so, and, in failing to
do so, failed the victim in this case, a child who will now
have to endure facing the defendant and reliving the abuse in
a courtroom for a second time.  I feel compelled to write
specially to encourage the State, as strongly as possible, to
ensure that the requirements of Waller are satisfied in the
event the State requests a complete or partial closure of the
courtroom when Demouey is retried. See Ex parte Easterwood,
980 So. 2d 367 (Ala. 2007).
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