Opinion ID: 799336
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Withdrawal of Jury Waiver

Text: Crosby next argues that he should be granted habeas relief because the trial court erroneously denied his subsequent request to withdraw his jury waiver. We deny Crosby's petition on this ground because he has not established that there is any clearly established Supreme Court law that holds that the Constitution guarantees a right to a jury trial after a valid waiver of that right. The bench trial was set to begin four days after Crosby waived his rights to a jury trial. The morning of trial, Crosby attempted to withdraw his jury waiver. The trial judge denied the request, finding that it was within his discretion to decide whether to accept the withdrawal or reject it. In particular, the court pointed to the fact that the motion was made just before the first witness was to be put on the stand, that days had been wasted that could have been used to select a jury, and that all the witnesses were ready to go that day as scheduled. The California Court of Appeal found that the trial court properly considered the timeliness of the motion on the day trial was set to begin, and the impact on the witnesses who were ready to take the stand that day. Thus, the court concluded that the trial court's decision to deny the withdrawal request was not an abuse of discretion. As previously discussed, Supreme Court precedent establishes that a defendant has a right to a jury trial, but that right is waivable, as long as the waiver is express and intelligent. Patton, 281 U.S. at 312, 50 S.Ct. 253. However, Patton is silent on whether there is a duty for a court to restore the right to jury trial, once the defendant has validly waived it, upon request of the defendant. Crosby fails to point us to, nor have we found, any Supreme Court case that deals squarely with this issue. Thus, there is no specific legal rule that has been squarely established on this issue by the Supreme Court. Harrington, 131 S.Ct. at 786. The Sixth Circuit in Sinistaj v. Burt, 66 F.3d 804 (6th Cir.1995) reached the same conclusion. The Sixth Circuit found that there was no authority for the proposition that when a state court abuses its discretion in denying a defendant's motion to withdraw a previously filed waiver of jury trial, the result is a violation of the United States Constitution. Id. at 808. Finding that perhaps such a violation could be made out in certain circumstances, the court emphasized that it could conceive of no situation in which a federal judicial determination on habeas collateral review that a state court, as a matter of general law, abused its discretion in denying the withdrawal motion is therefore a violation of the federal Constitution. Id. (emphasis in original). Addressing a similar issue in the context of an attempted withdrawal of a waiver of the right to counsel, we held in John-Charles v. California, 646 F.3d 1243 (9th Cir.2011), that there was no Supreme Court precedent to establish an absolute right to reinstate counsel after a valid waiver of the right to counsel under Faretta v. California, 422 U.S. 806, 95 S.Ct. 2525, 45 L.Ed.2d 562 (1975). Nor can we say that the California Court of Appeal's conclusion violates the general principles regarding the waiver of a jury trial set forth in Supreme Court cases, such as Patton. We have held that while waiver of a jury trial is not forever binding on the defendant, the right to withdraw it is not absolute and it may only be withdrawn if it is timely. United States v. Mortensen, 860 F.2d 948, 950-51 (9th Cir.1988). A request is timely if granting the motion would not unduly interfere with or delay the proceedings. Id. at 950 (finding that withdrawal request was untimely when it was made on the morning of trial). Thus, fairminded jurists certainly could agree with the state court's conclusion that the trial court did not abuse its discretion when it denied Crosby's request for withdrawal the day trial was set to begin as untimely because granting it would have interfered with and delayed his trial. Accordingly, we also reject Crosby's argument that the California Court of Appeal's conclusion as to the withdrawal of jury waiver was contrary to or an unreasonable application of Supreme Court precedent.