Opinion ID: 494571
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: waiver through counsel rather than in open court

Text: 18 Defense counsel informed Gordon of his constitutional right to be present at voir dire and of possible tactical disadvantages in exercising that right. 1 Based on this information, Gordon decided not to exercise this right, and defense counsel conveyed that decision to the court. The one previous case in this circuit on point suggests that such a waiver--without the court's explaining his rights to the defendant and indeed without any direct colloquy between the court and defendant--was altogether valid. In United States v. Washington, 705 F.2d 489 (D.C.Cir.1983), 13 prospective jurors who had answered affirmatively to general questions were further questioned at the bench, out of the hearing of the defendant. After six had been questioned, counsel requested that the defendant be allowed to participate, but the trial court refused, and the remaining seven were also questioned at the bench. A panel of this court found error in the sidebar examination of the last seven, explaining, 19 In normal cases the defendant upon request should be allowed to observe and hear juror responses made at the bench. But because it is a right infrequently exercised and usually delegated to counsel, unless a specific request is made for the defendant to participate at bench examinations of prospective jurors, such right shall be deemed to have been waived. 20 Id. at 497. The court explicitly stated, [W]e do not think the right to be present during voir dire is on the same level as, for example, entering a plea or the presentation of evidence. Id. 21 Washington indicates that, despite the unquestioned value of the right to be present at voir dire, waiver of that right requires no extraordinary measures. Indeed, it makes clear that silence alone will suffice to waive the right when the defendant is present and examinations are being conducted out of his or her hearing. In the instant case, an express waiver by the defendant was made on the advice of counsel and then communicated to the court. In light of Washington, the district court was justified in supposing that no more was required. 22 In finding to the contrary, the majority relies primarily on Cross v. United States, 325 F.2d 629 (D.C.Cir.1963), a decision thoroughly undermined by later Supreme Court authority. In Cross defendant's counsel advised the court, at the end of a recess, that the defendant (who was in custody) declined to return to the courtroom. The trial court proceeded without him. This court held that presence at trial was so vital that it was improper to proceed without first securing an on-the-record statement by the defendant in open court. In Taylor v. United States, 414 U.S. 17, 94 S.Ct. 194, 38 L.Ed.2d 174 (1973) (per curiam), however, a defendant (not in custody) disappeared after the trial began. Trial proceeded to conviction. Defendant later complained that his disappearance could not be treated as a waiver, as he had not been warned that he had a right to be present and that the trial would continue in his absence. The Supreme Court unanimously rejected the claim. The waiver by conduct was fully effective without evidence that defendant was aware of the consequences. 23 It is true, of course, that here as in Cross the defendant was in custody, so that further colloquy as to the basis of his waiver would have been possible. But if the Supreme Court had regarded an on-the-record judicial explanation of the defendant's options as important, it could in Taylor have simply required trial judges to routinely instruct the defendant on the consequences of flight. The Court's opinion is hardly consistent with the Cross court's apparent belief that waiver in open court is (where physically possible) necessary to justify any absence, no matter how minute. 24 Cross is even more clearly undermined by United States v. Gagnon, 470 U.S. 522, 105 S.Ct. 1482, 84 L.Ed.2d 486 (1985). There the Court held that defendants' silent acquiescence in the judge's in camera interrogation of a witness constituted a waiver of their rights under Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 43. Id. at 529, 105 S.Ct. at 1486. In Gagnon there was no problem of the defendants' being absent. The trial court could readily have given them an explanation of their rights under Rule 43 as they related to the colloquy; the Court was clear that she need not do so. Nor, indeed, was there evidence that defense counsel had so much as mentioned to defendants their right to be present at the interrogations. 25 Thus our decision in Washington, that a defendant may waive his right to participate in jury selection without the trial court's giving him a detailed explanation of his options, is well supported by Supreme Court decisions. Any implications to the contrary in Cross plainly lack such support. 26 Despite Washington, the majority equates the right to be present at voir dire with the right to be present at the presentation of evidence, citing only a dissent in United States v. Alessandrello, 637 F.2d 131, 151 (3rd Cir.1980) (Higginbotham, J., dissenting), cert. denied, 451 U.S. 949, 101 S.Ct. 2031, 68 L.Ed.2d 334 (1981). Judge Higginbotham suggested that a defendant's intimate knowledge of the facts of the case might give him special sensitivity in assessing individual prejudices or inclinations of the jurors revealed in the voir dire. Id. at 151. But defendant here (as was also true in Alessandrello ) makes no claim that any such sensitivity was relevant to the jury selection. Instead, using information that he could have secured from counsel the moment he joined him at the counsel table (and for all we know did secure), defendant raises merely a garden-variety concern about a prospective juror's prior work in law enforcement and relation to other law enforcement officers (brother, brother-in-law). The decision not to use a peremptory challenge on such a juror is a standard judgment call that defense counsel must make every day; there is no reason to believe that a defendant will have unique insights on the issue. Certainly Gordon has revealed none. 27 The court blithely justifies the new requirement by characterizing it as a slight additional burden on the criminal justice process. Maj. at 125. That remains to be seen. Most obviously, this approach leaves Washington in considerable doubt. There the court regarded a defendant's silence during portions of the voir dire conducted at the sidebar as effecting a valid waiver. But if defendant's presence at these inquiries is as important as the court now declares, it is hard to see why. Unless the judge makes the sort of general anticipatory warning that the Supreme Court said was unnecessary in Taylor and Gagnon, there is no way of knowing whether defendants are aware of their right to be present at such colloquies or of the consequences of foregoing the right: a loss of the opportunity to evaluate or respond to things that may be said or facial expressions that may be revealed. Further, since this case itself involves no more than a judgment conventionally made by lawyers, it draws in doubt the validity of all commitments made at sidebar conferences, in the absence of an explicit judicial statement of defendant's rights.