Opinion ID: 2633519
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Was the courtroom closure error de minimis?

Text: ¶ 24 The State would have us hold that no infringement on the right to public trial occurs when a closure is, as they contend this closure was, de minimis. [11] In support of that position, the State cites to Orange in which a concurring and a dissenting justice posited that some unjustified courtroom closures may be so trivial that they would not implicate the right to a public trial. Orange, 152 Wash.2d at 824-28, 100 P.3d 291. The State also points to Peterson v. Williams, 85 F.3d 39, 42 (2nd Cir.1996), a case in which a federal appeals court found that the inadvertent closure of a courtroom for a brief period of time was too trivial to constitute a constitutional violation. Although the State and Justice Madsen correctly note that other jurisdictions have determined that improper courtroom closures may not necessarily violate a defendant's public trial right, a majority of this court has never found a public trial right violation to be de minimis. [12] Even if we were to indicate a tolerance for so called trivial closures, the closure here could not be placed in that category because it was deliberately ordered and was neither ministerial in nature nor trivial in result. ¶ 25 The denial of the constitutional right to a public trial is one of the limited classes of fundamental rights not subject to harmless error analysis. See Bone-Club, 128 Wash.2d at 261-62, 906 P.2d 325; Neder v. United States, 527 U.S. 1, 8, 119 S.Ct. 1827, 144 L.Ed.2d 35 (1999) (citing Waller v. Georgia, 467 U.S. 39, 104 S.Ct. 2210, 81 L.Ed.2d 31 (1984)). Prejudice is necessarily presumed where a violation of the public trial right occurs. Bone-Club, 128 Wash.2d at 261-62, 906 P.2d 325 (citing State v. Marsh, 126 Wash. 142, 146-47, 217 P. 705 (1923)). As a result, precedent directs that the appropriate remedy for the trial court's constitutional error is reversal of Easterling's unlawful delivery of cocaine conviction and remand for new trial.