Opinion ID: 349452
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Jury's View of Defendants in Manacles

Text: 32 The Ramsey-Taylor argument may be stated simply: prejudice may arise from jurors seeing a defendant in manacles as he is being escorted through the courthouse and certainly arises when some of the defendants are seen in manacles and others are evidently free to come and go as they please, even though none of the defendants is manacled or in prison garb in the courtroom. See generally United States v. Torres, 519 F.2d 723, 727 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 423 U.S. 1019, 96 S.Ct. 457, 46 L.Ed.2d 392 (1975); Kennedy v. Cardwell, 487 F.2d 101, 109 (6th Cir. 1973), cert. denied, 416 U.S. 959, 94 S.Ct. 1976, 40 L.Ed.2d 310 (1974). In Torres we held that the prejudice that might have been caused by a single chance encounter in which jurors saw defendants in handcuffs had been cured by the trial court's prompt holding of a voir dire examination of the jurors who saw the defendant and by its decision to excuse an alternate juror who said that the view might affect her judgment. Here the trial judge conducted no voir dire following the one alleged viewing of defendants in manacles brought to its attention; other similar viewings were asserted by the defendants. 33 None of the defendants allegedly seen in manacles, however Ramsey, Taylor, Turner and Hansen ever requested a voir dire, and we cannot reverse the trial court for failing to hold one sua sponte. There is considerable doubt, moreover, whether the appellants were actually seen by jurors when the door of an elevator carrying some jurors opened as the elevator stopped at the floor of the courthouse where the appellants were standing with deputy marshals. Without objection from the appellants, the marshals were each interrogated and said that the jurors likely did not see the appellants, and a United States Magistrate, who was riding on the same elevator as the jurors, said that he did not see appellants. The court then denied motions for a mistrial on the ground that the viewing was not sufficient to prejudice the jury. Numerous cases support the proposition that an inadvertent view by jurors of defendants in handcuffs, without more, is not so inherently prejudicial as to require a mistrial. See, e. g., United States v. Chipman, 513 F.2d 1262, 1263 (6th Cir. 1975) (per curiam); United States v. Chrzanowski, 502 F.2d 573, 576 (3d Cir. 1974); United States v. Hopkins, 486 F.2d 360, 362-63 (9th Cir. 1973) (per curiam); United States v. Hamilton, 444 F.2d 81, 82 (5th Cir. 1971) (per curiam). Here Judge Duffy took steps to cure whatever prejudice might otherwise have resulted by granting appellants' requests for an instruction to the jury, the instruction quite appropriately pointing out that the reason for some defendants (not identified by the court) being in custody while others were not was that some defendants were able to afford bail and others were not and that the jury was to draw no inference from whether or not a defendant was able to afford bail. The inquiry made and the curative charge together served, we think, to supplant the voir dire of the allegedly exposed jurors. See United States v. Acosta-Garcia, 448 F.2d 395, 396 (9th Cir. 1971). Such a voir dire might only have exacerbated the situation by making the questioned jurors more aware, or perhaps aware for the first time, that some defendants were in custody.