Court Opinion

ID: 9569345
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 20:13:04.074825+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T11:50:23.837792
License: Public Domain

*429Mr. Justice McWilliams
dissenting:
I must respectfully dissent from that portion of the majority opinion which holds that Thompson was denied his right to a “public trial” as guaranteed by Article II, § 16 of the Colorado Constitution. In this connection Thompson makes no claim that he was denied any right guaranteed him by the United States Constitution, his only contention being that he was denied the “public trial” required by the Colorado Constitution.
There is a lack of judicial uniformity as to just what constitutes a “public trial.” In 14 Am. Jur. p. 866, et seq. appears the following:
“The decisions are not in harmony on the question whether the court has a right to exclude the public or a part of the public from the courtroom during the progress of a criminal trial. According to some decisions it may not. According to others it may ....
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“A defendant does not necessarily have to show on appeal that he was actually prejudiced on account of an invasion of his constitutional right to a public trial, because when such an invasion occurs the law presumes that he did not have a fair and impartial trial. However, it has been held not to be reversible error to exclude the spectators when there is no showing whatever that the defendant was prejudiced thereby or deprived of the presence, aid, or counsel of any person whose presence might have been of advantage to him.”
Hence, the issue as to what constitutes a “public trial” and whether a trial is any less a “public trial” because a trial judge excludes spectators from the courtroom during a sex trial, for example, is one upon which there is diversity of judicial thinking. Accordingly, if this were a matter of first impression in Colorado, we would be free to adopt the construction which appeals to us as being more reasonable and logical. But this is not a matter of first impression in Colorado, as this Court has already *430spoken on this matter in Benedict v. People, 23 Colo. 126, 46 Pac. 637. In that case this Court said:
“In a criminal case the trial must be public, not secret. But a public trial does not necessarily contemplate that every person whose morbid curiosity for indecent details draws him thither shall have that curiosity gratified by being permitted to be present in the courtroom to listen to the recital of disgusting facts.”
In that same case we also held that there was no showing of any prejudice done the defendant by the order excluding all spectators from the courtroom, and that the burden of showing such prejudice “rests upon the one assigning it.”
As I see it, the majority of this Court have this day overruled the Benedict case, not only as to just what constitutes a “public trial,” but have also overruled that part of the Benedict case declaring that a defendant must show actual prejudice resulting from the exclusion order.
I recognize that the majority of this Court have attempted to distinguish the Benedict case from the one at hand, but in my view these distinctions are inconsequential in nature and in nowise detract from the fundamental rule enunciated in that case. In this regard it is of interest to note that the United States Court of Appeals, Third Circuit in United States v. Kobli, 172 F.2d 919, the authority primarily relied upon by a majority of this Court, cites the Benedict case in support of the following:
“Some state courts, however, have taken the further position that in cases involving sexual offenses it is permissible, and not in violation of the guarantee of a public trial to exclude the general public entirely from the courtroom, permitting, in addition to the court officers and jurors, only the parties involved in the trial, their counsel, witnesses, relatives and friends to be present.”
I am in substantial agreement with this appraisal of the Benedict case as made in United States v. Kobli, supra.
*431My general thinking on this subject is found in Reagan v. United States, 202 F. 488, where the Circuit Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit stated:
“We think the better doctrine is that it is not reversible error to exclude the spectators as was done by the order of the court in the case at bar, when there is no showing whatever that the defendant was prejudiced thereby, or deprived of the presence, aid or counsel of any person whose presence might have been of advantage to him. The constitutional provision for a public trial should be construed in a reasonable sense, and in view of the object thereby intended to be subserved. The mere denial of the literal right should not be held ground for reversing a judgment, unless it can be perceived that the defendant has been deprived of some benefit or advantage thereby.
“The only conceivable benefit the defendant might have been deprived of by the order of the court in this case was the presence in the courtroom of a crowd of idle, gaping ioafers, whose morbid curiosity would lead them to attend such a trial, and the consequent embarrassment and annoyance their presence might cause to the unfortunate girl who was called upon to testify to the story of the defendant’s crime and her shame. Of the deprival of that benefit the defendant has no legal ground to complain. The trial was not, by the order of the court, rendered a secret trial. In a sense it was still a public trial. In addition to the court and jury, there were present in the courtroom the officers of the court, the witnesses for the government and for the defendant, and the counsel for the respective parties, and no members of the bar were excluded. These constituted a sufficient number of the public to see that the plaintiff in error was fairly dealt with and not unjustly condemned.”
Applying the result and the rationale of the Benedict case to the instant controversy, I am of the definite view that Thompson received a “public trial” and further that he has totally failed to show any prejudice resulting *432from the exclusion order as entered by the trial judge. Most certainly this was not a “secret trial.” The exclusion order permitted all to attend who had any real or legitimate interest to be present, including relatives to the third degree of both the victim and the defendant, as well as the press, of course. The order for all practical purposes excluded only those who were mere spectators, which apparently included some college students. I would hold that a trial is a “public trial” even though a trial judge on sufficient showing and by appropriate order excludes from the courtroom during a “sex trial” those who are mere spectators or only gaping sightseers. In the instant case I find no error In excluding from the courtroom all those persons who fall into this category, including the young college students, whose only interest in hearing a 20 year old girl tell just how the defendant forcibly raped her would be to satisfy their morbid curiosity or prurient longings.
I would affirm this judgment.