Court Opinion

ID: 9471475
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 03:33:20.733411+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:42:25.690720
License: Public Domain

E. GRADY JOLLY, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
I respectfully dissent from the panel’s holding that the petitioner must be granted habeas relief solely because the trial judge failed to articulate his reasons for holding in camera the hearing on the state’s motion to limit cross-examination of a prosecution witness. The relevant precedents do not compel this result.
That the judge failed to articulate his reasons does not focus on the relevant question necessary to determine whether habeas relief should be granted; yet this is the basis upon which the majority rests its opinion and directs habeas relief. The question here is whether the petitioner’s Sixth Amendment rights were violated by excluding the public from the hearing on an evi-dentiary question.
The majority concedes that the criminal defendant is not entitled to a public trial in every case on every issue as an absolute right. The state trial court here, as far as we know, may well have acted within its discretion in holding the motion in chambers. Thus, it may well be that the constitutional rights of this petitioner have not been violated at all. At this point, we simply do not know because the trial judge did not, as he should have, articulate his reasons for excluding the public. Yet, with no assurance that any constitutional right of the petitioner has been violated, the majority sets aside the state conviction and directs habeas relief be granted.
The sensible approach, fair to both the petitioner and the state, is to remand this case to the district court to hold a hearing to determine whether the state trial judge abused his discretion. Once such a record is made, an intelligent and informed judgment can be made as to whether the petitioner was deprived of a constitutional right.
Because the majority goes much farther than is necessary to protect this petitioner’s constitutional rights, because its holding is not required by any precedents and because it disregards the legitimate interests of the state and of justice, I dissent.