Opinion ID: 746430
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Defendant's Motion for a Bench Trial

Text: 22 Before trial, Vitti and Gabriel each waived their right to a jury trial and moved for a bench trial. However, the government refused to agree to a bench trial and the district court denied defendants' motions. Defendants were therefore tried by a jury. On appeal, defendants assert that denying them a bench trial was error. 23 Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 23(a), entitled Trial by Jury, provides: Cases required to be tried by jury shall be so tried unless the defendant waives a jury trial in writing with the approval of the court and the consent of the government  (emphasis added). The Supreme Court has found Rule 23(a)'s requirement that the government consent to a bench trial to be constitutional, stating, in pertinent part, that: 24 Trial by jury has been established by the Constitution as the normal and ... preferable mode of disposing of issues of fact in criminal cases. 25 ... The Constitution recognizes an adversary system as the proper method of determining guilt, and the Government, as a litigant, has a legitimate interest in seeing that cases in which it believes a conviction is warranted are tried before the tribunal which the Constitution regards as most likely to produce a fair result. 26 Singer v. United States, 380 U.S. 24, 35-36, 85 S.Ct. 783, 790, 13 L.Ed.2d 630 (1965) (citation omitted). 27 However, the Singer Court did not decide whether there might be some circumstances where a defendant's reasons for wanting to be tried by a judge alone are so compelling that the Government's insistence on trial by jury would result in the denial to a defendant of an impartial trial. Id. at 37, 85 S.Ct. at 791. Defendants here argue that a number of factors were so compelling that the district court's denial of their motions for a bench trial warrants reversal. We assume, without deciding, that compelling circumstances could arise that would justify granting a bench trial over government objection. However, none of the factors cited by defendants amounts to such compelling circumstances, and only two of those factors warrant any discussion. 2 28 First, defendants argue that all jurors fear flying and that this fear would arouse the jurors' passions against defendants. However, those potential jurors who expressed concern about sitting on this case because of a fear of flying were excused. Although a case might arise in which a fair and impartial jury could not be impaneled through this procedure, we see no reason to believe that a fair and impartial jury was not impaneled for this case. See United States v. Moon, 718 F.2d 1210, 1218-19 (2d Cir.1983) (holding that refusal to grant defendant, the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, a bench trial was not error because defendant was adequately protected from juror prejudice by the jury selection process). 29 Second, Vitti argues that he was prejudiced by the extensive evidence the government presented against Gabriel. When a defendant fears this sort of prejudicial joinder, the defendant should move for severance under Fed.R.Crim.P. 14, and such a motion may be granted if the defendant would be prejudiced by the joinder. Here, Vitti did not move for a severance and he concedes that the district court would not have been required to grant him a severance if he had moved for one. Vitti is therefore left to argue that to combat prejudicial joinder, he has a right to a bench trial that somehow exceeds his right to a severance. However, Rule 14 specifically provides a mechanism to guard against the harm Vitti fears, and, furthermore, we see no potential prejudice here that would warrant granting a bench trial over the government's objection.