Opinion ID: 686727
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Imposition of Physical Restraints

Text: 35 In civil as well as criminal cases, the right to a fair trial is fundamental. See, e.g., In re International Business Machines Corp., 618 F.2d 923, 932 n. 11 (2d Cir.1980); Bailey v. Systems Innovation, Inc., 852 F.2d 93, 98 (3rd Cir.1988) ([F]airness in a jury trial, whether criminal or civil in nature, is a vital constitutional right.); Chicago Council of Lawyers v. Bauer, 522 F.2d 242, 248 (7th Cir.1975) (the right to a fair trial [is] guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment to criminal defendants and to all persons by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment), cert. denied, 427 U.S. 912, 96 S.Ct. 3201, 49 L.Ed.2d 1204 (1976). In either type of case, the court must be alert to avoid practices that may undermine the fairness of the factfinding process. Forcing a party to appear at a jury trial in manacles and other shackles may well deprive him of due process unless the restraints are necessary. 36 In Illinois v. Allen, 397 U.S. 337, 90 S.Ct. 1057, 25 L.Ed.2d 353 (1970), the Supreme Court, in considering what devices a trial court could properly have used to control an obstreperous and abusive defendant in a criminal case in order to avoid the need to remove him from the courtroom, noted that placing the defendant in physical restraints should be avoided except as a last resort, lest the defendant be denied a fair trial: 37 no person should be tried while shackled and gagged except as a last resort. Not only is it possible that the sight of shackles and gags might have a significant effect on the jury's feelings about the defendant, but the use of this technique is itself something of an affront to the very dignity and decorum of judicial proceedings that the judge is seeking to uphold. 38 Id. at 344, 90 S.Ct. at 1061. Circuit courts have recognized that the concerns expressed in Allen are applicable to parties in civil suits as well. See, e.g., Lemons v. Skidmore, 985 F.2d 354, 356-59 (7th Cir.1993); Holloway v. Alexander, 957 F.2d 529, 530 (8th Cir.1992); Tyars v. Finner, 709 F.2d 1274, 1285 (9th Cir.1983); see also Woods v. Thieret, 5 F.3d 244, 246-47 (7th Cir.1993) (plaintiff's inmate witnesses required to appear in shackles and handcuffs). The principles consistently applied are that the trial court has discretion to order physical restraints on a party or witness when the court has found those restraints to be necessary to maintain safety or security; but the court must impose no greater restraints than are necessary, and it must take steps to minimize the prejudice resulting from the presence of the restraints. The proceedings at issue in Lemons v. Skidmore (Lemons ) and Woods v. Thieret provide contrasting illumination. 39 In Lemons, the prisoner plaintiff claimed that the defendant prison guards had beaten him in violation of his Eighth Amendment rights; the defendants contended that the plaintiff had attacked them first. For trial, Lemons was brought to the courthouse in handcuffs and leg-irons, and his attorney asked the magistrate judge who was to preside at trial to allow Lemons not to wear those restraints at trial. The magistrate judge denied the request, deferring completely to those guarding Lemons: 40 Well, the position I take is since Mr. Lemons is in the custody of the Department of Corrections, they set the rules for how he will be restrained, if at all.... 41 Predictably, someone from the Department of Corrections stated that it was their policy to keep the restraints in place. Magistrate Judge Kauffman replied, Okay, you are in charge. 42 Lemons, 985 F.2d at 356 (quoting magistrate judge). On appeal from a judgment in favor of the defendants, the court of appeals reversed and remanded for a new trial, concluding that 43 [t]he magistrate judge abused his discretion by relying on the self-serving opinion of fellow penal officers of the defendants and not holding a hearing to determine what, if any, restraints were necessary, taking no steps to minimize the prejudice to Mr. Lemons in having him appear to be a violent and dangerous person who required leg irons and handcuff restraints, and in failing to give a curative instruction or take any other ameliorative steps. 44 985 F.2d at 356. The Lemons court noted that 45 [t]he preferred procedure is for the trial judge to hold a brief hearing before trial at which the state may try to prove that restraints are necessary.... 46 There was no such hearing held in this case. In fact, the magistrate judge did not give any individual consideration to this issue. He stated that since Lemons was in custody, he would leave the decision entirely in the hands of the Department of Corrections. The judge may not delegate his discretion to another party. While he could have consulted the Department of Corrections employees or court security officers, and listened to their opinions and the reasons in support of them, he had to consider all the evidence and ultimately make the decision himself.... Instead he delegated the decision to the Department of Corrections employees. To nobody's surprise, they said he should keep Lemons in handcuffs and leg irons. That delegation was particularly dangerous here where all of the defendants were also Department of Corrections employees, so that the decisionmaker could hardly be called impartial. When the trial judge delegates a decision, and gives no reason for the decision, that is not an exercise of discretion but an absence of and an abuse of discretion. 47 Lemons, 985 F.2d at 358. The trial court having failed to follow these steps, the court of appeals remanded for (a) a hearing on the necessary level of restraints, if any, and (b) a new trial. See also Tyars v. Finner, 709 F.2d at 1276, 1285 (in jury trial to determine whether a mentally retarded person was a danger to himself or others and thus, under California law, could be involuntarily committed to a state hospital, the imposition on him of physical restraints with no prior showing of demonstrable or articulable necessity, and no showing that less restrictive and less prejudicial means were unavailable, violated due process); id. at 1284 (Shackling [or] restraining ... a [party] ... must be limited to cases urgently demanding that action, based upon a balancing of the [party's] rights to be present and to have an impartial jury with the need for orderly administration of justice.). 48 In contrast to the circumstances in Lemons, if the trial court has in fact evaluated the safety and security concerns, has taken steps to minimize the restraints and their prejudicial effects, and has given a cautionary instruction to the jury, there is likely no denial of due process. In Woods v. Thieret, 5 F.3d at 244-49, the trial court required the plaintiff's prisoner-witnesses to appear in leg and arm restraints, but there had been no delegation of the judicial responsibility to determine the need for those restraints. The court found that these witnesses, convicted of rape, aggravated assault, numerous armed robberies, and two murders, were dangerous. Further, the trial court noted that, due to the narrow configuration of the courtroom, the witnesses would be close to the bench, the counsel tables, and the jurors. Accordingly, the court determined that the prisoner-witnesses should be kept in leg and arm restraints. In order to minimize the prejudicial effect of the restraints, however, the court had the jury removed from the courtroom while the prisoner-witnesses were escorted to and from the witness stand. The court also instructed the jury to disregard the restraints when evaluating the witnesses' testimony. The court of appeals concluded that there was no due process violation. 49 In Holloway v. Alexander, a suit complaining of the living conditions in the punitive isolation area of a maximum security prison, both Holloway and his prisoner-witnesses had been required to appear at trial in shackles. The court of appeals found that Holloway had not been denied a fair trial in light of the facts that (a) the jury knew from the nature of the claim that Holloway and his witnesses were confined to a maximum security prison, (b) Holloway's own testimony about his criminal history and sentences made it clear that he was a dangerous felon and a likely flight risk, (c) the fact that these inmates were security risks inside the courtroom was not pertinent to the claim at issue, which centered on prison living conditions, and (d) the trial court instructed the jury that it was to disregard the shackles when it deliberated on Holloway's claim. 957 F.2d at 530. While concluding that Holloway had not been deprived of a fair trial, the court of appeals nonetheless cautioned that in general such physical restraints should be avoided unless necessary and that if it is not feasible to avoid some restraints, the trial court should use no greater restraint than necessary and must give cautionary instructions to minimize their prejudicial effect: 50 Although we hold the use of shackles did not rise to the level of reversible error in Holloway's case, we do not hold the use of shackles could never amount to reversible error in a prisoner civil rights action. This court does not endorse a general policy of parading inmate civil plaintiffs or their witnesses before the jury in shackles. In these cases, the district court has a responsibility to ensure reasonable efforts are made to permit the inmate and the inmate's witnesses to appear without shackles during proceedings before the jury. When this is not feasible, the district court should take appropriate action to minimize the use of shackles, to cover shackles from the jury's view, and to mitigate any potential prejudice through cautionary instructions. 51 Id. 52 When the trial court has followed the proper procedures, its decision is reviewable for abuse of discretion. If the court has deferred entirely to those guarding the prisoner, however, it has failed to exercise its discretion. See, e.g., Lemons, 985 F.2d at 358. If the reviewing court finds that the court has impermissibly delegated the decision to others or has otherwise abused its discretion, the error will not automatically lead to reversal, for harmless-error analysis applies. See, e.g., id. at 359; Tyars v. Finner, 709 F.2d at 1286 (remanding to district court to determine whether prejudice resulted to habeas petitioner by being forced to appear with restraints at civil-commitment trial); cf. Estelle v. Williams, 425 U.S. 501, 506-07, 96 S.Ct. 1691, 1694, 48 L.Ed.2d 126 (1976) (citing with apparent approval the rule, followed in the courts of appeals, that requiring a defendant to appear at a criminal trial in prison clothing is subject to harmless-error analysis). In determining whether an unnecessary imposition of restraints was harmless, the reviewing court should weigh several factors, including the strength of the case in favor of the prevailing party and what effect the restraints might have had given the nature of the issues and evidence involved in the trial. Where the restraints would appear to be pertinent to the substance of the plaintiff's claims, the error may well not be harmless. For example, in Lemons, the court found the use of restraints was not harmless error because the defense was that Lemons had initiated the use of force, and thus, plaintiff's tendency towards violence was at issue in this case. 985 F.2d at 357. In Woods v. Thieret, on the other hand, the court noted that if there was error it was harmless since the complaint centered on living conditions in the prison, an issue on which the presence of physical restraints had no evident bearing. See 5 F.3d at 249. 53 In the present case, which is quite similar to Lemons, we see several flaws in the district court's treatment of Davidson. First, it is plain that the court abdicated its responsibility to determine the need for the physical restraints, leaving the decision to the DOCS guards accompanying Davidson to the courthouse. The court's response to Davidson's request was typified by its statement that it's up to the officer here, if they want to remove them, they can. (Tr. 9; see also id. at 11 (It's up to the officers who are with you. I'm not going to do anything different than they advise.); id. at 12 (you should be treated as those people in charge of you think you should be treated); and id. at 2, 10, 13, 21.) This was an impermissible delegation of the court's responsibility to determine whether Davidson's due process right not to appear before the jury in shackles and manacles was outweighed by considerations of security. 54 Second, despite colloquy that strongly indicated the need for an evidentiary hearing as to whether Davidson was an escape risk, the court refused to conduct such a hearing. The court assumed from the fact that Davidson was brought to the courthouse under severe restraint that the guards believed he was a security risk. The court expressed that assumption to one of Davidson's guards and elicited the response, That is correct, Your Honor. (Id. at 13.) The only explanatory statement on the record (and DOCS indicates that there were no ex parte statements (DOCS brief on appeal at 7)) was the DOCS officer's statement that he preferred to have Davidson fully restrained because of the prior escape attempt. (Id. at 21.) The court did nothing to probe that terse reference, and it ignored Davidson's more detailed assertions that he had evidence to the contrary, to wit memos from the superintendent of Attica (id. at 10) and a letter from the Commissioner of Corrections (id. at 22), that he was not an escape risk (id. at 10). 55 Defendants' attempt to defend the district court's decision to keep Davidson in handcuffs and leg-irons as a reasonabl[e] conclu[sion] that shackling was necessary (DOCS brief on appeal at 5), is unsupportable. Defendants argue that [u]ndeniably, plaintiff represented a substantial escape risk. His history of escape and attempted escapes, including one during one of his Sec. 1983 trials, demonstrates that unequivocally (id.); that at the pretrial hearing, Sergeant Valentino stated the need for the restraints on the record and the established facts prove he is an escape risk (id. at 7-8); that no hearing was necessary under the circumstances of this case.... [T]his case is unique in that the relevant facts establishing that he poses a substantial escape risk were found by Judge Weinfeld in Davidson v. Boulanger ... (DOCS brief on appeal at 7); and that Davidson's state-court victories in Davidson v. Smith, 69 N.Y.2d 677, 512 N.Y.S.2d 13, 504 N.E.2d 380 and Davidson v. Coughlin, 154 A.D.2d 806, 546 N.Y.S.2d 247, did not disprove the facts (DOCS brief on appeal at 7). Far from persuading us that the district court's decision should be upheld, these arguments bring us to a third reason why it cannot be upheld. Though the DOCS brief cites the two cases in which Davidson prevailed, it is entirely silent as to the extent of his victory: it never mentions that in both cases, the courts ordered the escape matters expunged from Davidson's records. Nor does it mention that the second decision forbade DOCS to use the information expunged from those records except for defensive purposes. The Appellate Division's concern that Davidson would be in jeopardy of having these references unfairly used against [him], 154 A.D.2d at 807, 546 N.Y.S.2d at 248, appears to have been prescient. 56 Finally, we see no indication that the district court made any substantial effort to see that the prejudicial effect of any necessary restraints was minimized. Though we have no complete transcript of the proceedings below (having denied Davidson's request that one be provided at government expense), defendants apparently have provided such transcripts as they consider helpful to them. Defendants have not indicated that the court gave any cautionary instruction to the jurors to disregard Davidson's restraints as they considered the merits of his claim. The court's minimization effort appears to have been limited to deciding that the black box and waist chain should be removed. The court refused to consider removal of Davidson's handcuffs even though as a pro se litigant he would be conspicuously hampered in the handling of his papers. Further, the court apparently declined to modify its usual voir dire procedure though that procedure forced Davidson to hobble in leg-irons from counsel table to the bench after each round of questioning before he could make any objection to any prospective juror: 57 THE COURT: .... If you have challenge [sic ] for cause, challenges for cause are made by approaching the bench out of the hearing of the jury and tell me on the record why you wish to challenge a juror for cause. 58 MR. DAVIDSON: Now, I have to get from my plaintiff's table, I have to get up and walk to the bench? 59 THE COURT: Yes. 60 MR. DAVIDSON: In handcuffs and shackles? 61 THE COURT: Yes. 62 (Tr. 18.) 63 In sum, we conclude that the court inappropriately delegated the decisionmaking to DOCS guards, failed to conduct an evidentiary hearing, accepted as a basis for restraint an allegation that likely has been expunged from the record and to which state-court decisions appear to have prohibited all DOCS reference, and made no effort to mitigate the prejudice inherent in having a party appear in handcuffs and leg-irons before the jury. Further, we cannot conclude that these errors were harmless. While it does not appear that Davidson's claim in this action bore a relationship to either a propensity toward violence or a risk of escape, the potential for prejudice nonetheless seems to have been significant, for the verdict apparently was to turn on whether the jury would believe Davidson and his prisoner-witnesses or the DOCS witnesses. It hardly appears that the evidence in favor of the defendants could have been overwhelming, for defendants themselves characterize the case as a swearing contest in which the credibility of the witnesses was crucial. (DOCS brief on appeal at 10.) Since it appears that the district court did not make appropriate efforts to minimize the prejudice inherent in forcing Davidson to appear in handcuffs and leg-irons, such as modifying some of its usual courtroom procedures and giving the jury a cautionary instruction, we conclude that Davidson is entitled to a new trial as to those defendants in whose favor the court did not grant judgment as a matter of law at the close of Davidson's case.