Opinion ID: 330705
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Alleged Irregularities in Excusing Prospective Jurors.

Text: 21 In lieu of an ordinary panel of veniremen, the trial judge, anticipating difficulties because of pretrial publicity, instructed the jury clerks to assemble all available prospective jurors in his courtroom. The judge did not tell them anything about the case, except that the trial would probably last two to three weeks and that the jury would be sequestered. He then asked anyone who felt that such service would be a personal hardship to pass before the bench for a brief conversation. A number of veniremen were excused. Neither the defendants nor their counsel participated in these proceedings, and the conversations at the bench were not audible to them or recorded by the court reporter. Appellants do not claim that what the court did violates any provision of the Jury Selection and Service Act of 1968, Pub.L. 90-274, 82 Stat. 53, 28 U.S.C. Secs. 1861-1869. They do argue that the procedure violated 28 U.S.C. Sec. 753(b), which requires the recording of all proceedings in criminal cases had in open court, and Rule 43, F.R.Crim.P., which requires that the defendant be present at every stage of the trial including the impaneling of the jury. We disagree. 22 The eminently practical procedure employed by the trial judge cannot reasonably be considered a part of the criminal trial. Ordinarily it falls to the jury clerks or commissioners to excuse jurors for hardship, a practice that has been approved by the courts. See, e.g., United States v. Kelly, 2 cir., 1965, 349 F.2d 720, 778-79; United States v. Woodner, 2 Cir., 1963, 317 F.2d 649, 651; United States v. Flynn, 2 Cir., 1954, 216 F.2d 354, 386-88. Surely the fact that this time the excusing was done by a judge sitting in his courtroom does not alter the essential nature of what was done, cf. 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1866(c)(1). We note especially the strikingly similar facts of Woodner, supra, in which the Second Circuit failed to detect the remotest possibility of prejudicial error in a procedure whereby the trial judge heard hardship excuses, unrecorded, within the sight of but beyond earshot of the defendants and their counsel. 23