Opinion ID: 852583
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Wrinkles v. State

Text: Wrinkles, like Stephenson, asserted that trial counsel were ineffective for not objecting to the court's ordering him to wear a stun belt at trial. Wrinkles contended that there was no reason to require restraint. Wrinkles, 749 N.E.2d at 1192. We recognized that a defendant has the right to appear before a jury unrestrained unless restraint is necessary for a trial without incident. Id. at 1193 (citing Bivins v. State, 642 N.E.2d 928, 936 (Ind. 1994)). We also acknowledged that this right springs from the basic principle of American jurisprudence that a person accused of a crime is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt and that in order for the presumption to be effective, a defendant must appear unrestrained to avoid the appearance that guilt was a foregone conclusion. Id. We reiterated that the reasons for requiring a defendant to be restrained before a jury must be placed on the trial record. Id. (citing Roche v. State, 690 N.E.2d 1115, 1123 (Ind.1997); Coates v. State, 487 N.E.2d 167, 169 (Ind.Ct.App.1985), overruled on other grounds by Hahn v. State, 533 N.E.2d 618 (Ind.Ct.App.1989)). Deck has now made clear that the Fourteenth Amendment imposes the same requirement. The majority in Wrinkles acknowledged that a policy requiring all defendants to wear restraints would not likely withstand appellate scrutiny if the issue were presented. 749 N.E.2d at 1195. We nonetheless held in Wrinkles that counsel's failure to object to the stun belt's use did not constitute ineffective assistance in that case. We based that ruling on a lack of prejudice, without addressing whether counsel's performance was substandard. Id. at 1195, 1196. The reason for that holding was that the trial court's policy dictated use of restraint and any objection to the belt would not have prevailed. Id. The failure to require an individualized determination was not asserted as a ground of ineffective assistance in Wrinkles. We agree with the State that Stephenson's case presents many similarities to Wrinkles. The two are not identical, however, because this record shows no inflexible policy of the trial court. Trial counsel Long testified that in his experience, the trial judge typically deferred to the sheriff's security decisions. The sheriff, in turn, cited concerns in transporting defendants from jail to the courtroom as the basis for requiring restraint. These concerns did not seem to relate directly to use of the belt at trial as opposed to its use in transit, but that issue was not explored at the post-conviction hearing. [4] The officers in charge of security at the trial testified that they had no knowledge of any incidents that would demonstrate a need for Stephenson to wear a stun belt. Sheriff Bruce Hargrave; Charlie McCracken, the sergeant in charge of security at Stephenson's trial; Jerry Ash, the deputy of security; police officer Robert Irvin; and Jonetta Baker, jail commander for the Warrick County Police Department, all testified at post-conviction that to their knowledge Stephenson posed no security threat and had exhibited no behavior that would demonstrate a specific need for a restraining device at trial. There was also extensive post-conviction testimony from the sheriff's office and others that Stephenson conducted himself as a gentleman throughout the arrest and trial. He had turned himself in in response to reports that law enforcement was looking for him in connection with the murders and made no effort to escape either before or during trial. From the sheriff's testimony, it appears that no one gave careful consideration to the need for any restraint while Stephenson was in the courtroom at his trial. Rather, the need was assumed, and the only concern voiced by the sheriff was whether the jury would see the restraint. Although the record shows that the trial judge followed the recommendation of the sheriff, it does not indicate that either had an inflexible policy of requiring restraint, or, if so, to what cases it applied.