The Appellate Division determined that, because Kan and Ip raised the same challenge to the closure at their joint trial, that court was bound, on Kan's State court appeal, by the Federal court conclusion that Ip had been denied his Sixth Amendment right to a public trial. A Justice of the Appellate Division dissented, urging that the Appellate Division was bound only by the United States Supreme Court and the State Court of Appeals, and was not bound by lower Federal courts' determinations on questions of Federal constitutional law, relying on Flanagan v Prudential-Bache Securities, Inc. That Justice granted leave to the People to appeal to our Court. Only defendant Kan is before us and only the closure during the accomplice's testimony is now challenged. We affirm, for different reasons, based on our independent direct appeal review of Kan's case.
Closure remains only an exception to the mandatory postulate of open trials.
At Kan's trial, during the hearing on the People's application for closure, the trial court perspicaciously explored this sensitive issue. He noted that he would be testifying in this and other cases, and was at that time still involved as a confidential informant in an ongoing investigation concerning past, completed criminal activities. He also expressed fear of retaliation from persons connected with his continuing informant activity and from their friends and did not want to show his face in public. His fear related to his time in jail and after his release, although he had not been harmed or threatened while in the general population at Rikers Island with codefendant Ip for several months and he had not requested to be placed in protective custody. He believed his fear would affect his ability to testify in a calm and truthful manner if the courtroom were not closed.