Opinion ID: 1195356
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 9

Heading: Metal detector

Text: Defendant contends his due process right to a fair trial was impaired when the trial court caused to be installed a metal detector through which the public was required to pass while entering the courtroom. He objected at trial, and at a hearing on the objection, evidence was presented regarding a letter and a poster traceable to defendant that the prosecutor alleged constituted veiled threats against prosecution witnesses. In addition, it was pointed out that the charges alleged that the murder was undertaken with the purpose of silencing a witness in another criminal proceeding against defendant. Finally, a news reporter testified that he had received anonymous phone calls in which a shootout in the courtroom was threatened. At a later hearing requesting reconsideration of the court's ruling denying the motion, evidence was presented regarding threats against the prosecutor and the trial court made by persons other than defendant. We have recognized that certain security measures may burden the right to a fair trial. In particular, to require the defendant to appear before the jury under physical restraint may impair that right, for example by leading the jury to infer he is a violent person and by tending to dispel the presumption of innocence. ( People v. Duran (1976) 16 Cal.3d 282, 290, 127 Cal.Rptr. 618, 545 P.2d 1322.) Visible physical restraints should not be ordered in the absence of evident necessity or manifest need, and indeed, [t]he imposition of physical restraints in the absence of a record showing of violence or a threat of violence or other nonconforming conduct will be deemed to constitute an abuse of discretion. ( Id., at pp. 289, 290-291, 127 Cal.Rptr. 618, 545 P.2d 1322.) Other security measures, however, may not require such justification, and reside within the sound discretion of the trial court. We explained, for example, that the presence of armed guards in the courtroom would not require justification on the record [u]nless they are present in unreasonable numbers. (People v. Duran, supra, 16 Cal.3d at p. 291, fn. 8, 127 Cal. Rptr. 618, 545 P.2d 1322; see also People v. Ainsworth (1988) 45 Cal.3d 984, 1003-1004, 248 Cal.Rptr. 568, 755 P.2d 1017 [trial court did not err in determining that unusual number of guards was not unreasonable].) The United States Supreme Court also distinguishes between security measures, such as shackling, that reflect on defendant's culpability or violent propensities, and other, more neutral precautions. ( Holbrook v. Flynn (1986) 475 U.S. 560, 567-568, 106 S.Ct. 1340, 89 L.Ed.2d 525.) Measures such as shackling or the appearance of the defendant in jail garb are inherently prejudicial and are subject to exacting scrutiny ( id. at p. 568, 106 S.Ct. 1340), but precautions such as the use of additional armed security forces are not, because of the wider range of inferences that a juror might reasonably draw from the officers' presence. ( Id. at p. 569, 106 S.Ct. 1340.) The court explained: While shackling and prison clothes are unmistakable indications of the need to separate a defendant from the community at large, the presence of guards at a defendant's trial need not be interpreted as a sign that [defendant] is particularly dangerous or culpable. Jurors may just as easily believe that the officers are there to guard against disruptions emanating from outside the courtroom or to ensure that tense courtroom exchanges do not erupt into violence. Indeed, it is entirely possible that jurors will not infer anything at all from the presence of the guards. If they are placed at some distance from the accused, security officers may well be perceived more as elements of an impressive drama than as reminders of the defendant's special status. Our society has become inured to the presence of armed guards in most public places; they are doubtless taken for granted so long as their numbers or weaponry do not suggest particular official concern or alarm. [Citation.] ( Ibid. ) Accordingly, the court concluded, the presence of such guards is not inherently prejudicial, and their appearance at the defendant's trial will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis to determine whether the defendant actually was prejudiced. ( Ibid.; see also People v. Miranda (1987) 44 Cal.3d 57, 115, 241 Cal. Rptr. 594, 744 P.2d 1127.) We believe that the use of a metal detector outside a courtroom, like the use of additional security forces within the courtroom, is not a measure that is inherently prejudicial. Just as in Holbrook, in which the high court held that the presence of four additional uniformed police officers at trial was not the sort of inherently prejudicial practice that, like shackling, should be permitted only where justified by an essential state interest specific to each trial ( Holbrook v. Flynn, supra, 475 U.S. at pp. 568-569, 106 S.Ct. 1340), the use of a metal detector at the entrance to the courtroom in which the case is to be tried is not inherently prejudicial. Unlike shackling and the display of the defendant in jail garb, the use of a metal detector does not identify the defendant as a person apart or as worthy of fear and suspicion. In addition, the jury in the present case did not pass through the metal detector and may not have been aware of it. Even if the jury was aware of the metal detector, the jury may well have considered it a routine security device, as the trial court predicted, or at most a device necessary to maintain order among the spectators. The public is inured to the use of metal detectors in public places such as courthouses, and many reviewing courts have found their use nonprejudicial. ( Jenner v. Class (8th Cir.1996) 79 F.3d 736, 742-743; Helium v. Warden (8th Cir.1994) 28 F.3d 903, 906-909; United States v. Scarfo (3rd Cir.1988) 850 F.2d 1015, 1024-1025; United States v. Carter (8th Cir. 1987) 815 F.2d 1230, 1231; United States v. Heck (9th Cir.1974) 499 F.2d 778, 788; State v. Aguilar (Minn.1984) 352 N.W.2d 395, 396-397.) No reflection upon defendant's guilt or innocence need be inferred from the use of a metal detector. Defendant contends that use of a metal detector in front of the courtroom in which a case is to be tried is justified or permissible only if there is compelling evidence of imminent threats to the security of the courtroom attributable to the defendant, citing People v. Duran, supra, 16 Cal.3d 282, 127 Cal.Rptr. 618, 545 P.2d 1322; State v. Hartzog (1981) 96 Wash.2d 383, 635 P.2d 694; and United States v. Carter, supra, 815 F.2d 1230. He contends no such compelling evidence was presented in this case. The cases he cites do not support his contention. Compelling justification was required in Duran because the defendant was shackled, an inherently prejudicial measure. The court in United States v. Carter, supra, 815 F.2d 1230, did not apply the standard urged by defendant but instead applied the abuse of discretion standard ( id. at p. 1231), and in State v. Hartzog, supra, 96 Wash.2d 383, 635 P.2d 694, the court found magnetometer searches of jurors to be harmless error. ( Id. at pp. 705-706.) Security measures that are not inherently prejudicial need not be justified by compelling evidence of imminent threats to the security of the court. (See Holbrook v. Flynn, supra, 475 U.S. at pp. 568-569, 106 S.Ct. 1340; People v. Duran, supra, 16 Cal.3d at p. 291, fn. 8, 127 Cal. Rptr. 618, 545 P.2d 1322; Morgan v. Aispuro (9th Cir.1991) 946 F.2d 1462, 1465.) Nor does defendant identify any actual prejudice arising from the trial court's decision to employ a metal detector at the entrance to the courtroom. ( Holbrook v. Flynn, supra, 475 U.S. at p. 572, 106 S.Ct. 1340; see also People v. Miranda, supra, 44 Cal.3d at p. 115, 241 Cal.Rptr. 594, 744 P.2d 1127.) We conclude the trial court did not abuse its discretion in maintaining a metal detector at the entrance to the courtroom in which defendant's case was being tried.