Court Opinion

ID: 9712587
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 04:56:44.807308+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:13.140380
License: Public Domain

WIEAND, Judge,
concurring:
I agree fully with the majority that a second trial for Nathan Owens is not barred by considerations of double *8jeopardy. I write only to emphasize that while the trial judge did not abuse his discretion by declaring a mistrial in this case, a trial court is not required to declare a mistrial in all instances in which a disruptive defendant, by his own flagrant misbehavior, makes it difficult to proceed in an orderly fashion or appears to prejudice the jury against him. If “manifest necessity” for declaring a mistrial existed in every case where a defendant engaged in disruptive and contemptuous behavior, “.. . it would provide an easy device for defendants to provoke mistrials whenever they might choose to do so.” United States v. Bentvena, 319 F.2d 916, 931 (2nd Cir. 1963), cert. denied, 375 U.S. 940, 84 S.Ct. 345, 11 L.Ed.2d 271 (1963), reh. denied, 397 U.S. 928, 90 S.Ct. 894, 25 L.Ed.2d 108 (1970), quoting United States v. Aviles, 274 F.2d 179, 193 (2nd Cir. 1959), cert. denied, 362 U.S. 974, 80 S.Ct. 1057, 4 L.Ed.2d 1009 (1960). See generally: Anno., Disruptive Conduct of Accused in Presence of Jury as Ground for Mistrial or Discharge of Jury, 89 A.L.R.3d 960.
I do not believe it should be “the function of an appellate court with all the advantages of hindsight to substitute itself for the trial judge and to declare how it might have handled each situation or to deliver lengthy admonitions to trial judges on the proprieties of conducting these difficult criminal trials. . . . ” United States v. Bentvena, supra at 933. Nevertheless, it may not be amiss to suggest that an alternative preferable to declaring a mistrial can be found in the ABA Standards Relating to the Function of the Trial Judge, § 6.8, where the following appears:
A defendant may be removed from the courtroom during his trial when his conduct is so disruptive that the trial cannot proceed in an orderly manner. Removal is preferable to gagging or shackling the disruptive defendant. If removed, the defendant should be required to be in the court building while the trial is in progress, to be given the opportunity of learning of the trial proceedings through his counsel at reasonable intervals, and be given a continuing opportunity to return to the courtroom during the trial upon his assurance of good behavior. The re*9moved defendant should be summoned to the courtroom at appropriate intervals, with the offer to permit him to remain repeated in open court each time.
See also Commonwealth v. Africa, 466 Pa. 603, 353 A.2d 855 (1976).
Because I do not understand the majority opinion to require a mistrial in cases of disruptive defendants but, rather, to leave the dealing with such defendants to the sound discretion of the trial judge, I join therein.