Court Opinion

ID: 9479421
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 07:18:10.949589+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:47:02.048910
License: Public Domain

NOONAN, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
With the greatest respect I differ from my colleagues in the conclusion they have reached. The case has been a difficult one for all of us and has required extensive deliberation. The very difficulty of the case points to the conclusion that we are not in an area where the Constitution of the United States mandates a result but in an area where a federal court is wrongly substituting its discretion for the discretion conscientiously exercised by the court that tried Spain for murder and convicted him of two murders.
THE TASK OF THIS COURT
The only ground on which a federal court may invalidate a conviction in a court of one of the states is that the state in obtaining the conviction violated the Constitution of the United States. We have no jurisdiction as a federal court to substitute our discretion for that of a state trial judge. Only if some action by that judge in the exercise of his discretion is so outrageous a departure from the requirements of fair play that the defendant has been denied due process of law are we entitled to set the trial verdict aside. The question before us is not whether the trial judge has abused his discretion but whether he abused it so badly that Spain did not receive a fair trial or was denied his right to counsel.
The constitutional standard is set out in the leading case on this subject, Illinois v. Allen, 397 U.S. 337, 90 S.Ct. 1057, 25 L.Ed.2d 353 (1970). Justice Black there begins his statement of the case by referring to the requirements of set by the Sixth Amendment and, in invalidating the state process, Justice Black concludes that the defendant indeed was denied a right guaranteed by the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments. Id. at 346, 90 S.Ct. at 1062. The same standard is evident in our most recent case on the subject, Stewart v. Corbin, 850 F.2d 492, 497 (9th Cir.1988), cert. denied, 109 S.Ct. 1737, 104 L.Ed.2d 175 (1989), where the court says: “The issue in the present case is not whether in retrospect, the trial court could have handled the matter better, but rather, whether the trial court denied appellant a fair trial under the circumstances.” Similarly in Harrell v. Israel, 672 F.2d 632, 637 (7th Cir.1982), the court balances the prejudicial effect of shackling against the danger of a prisoner in a maximum security prison engaging in violence in a courtroom and concludes that the prisoner “suffered no denial of due process.” That is the constitutional issue we have to decide.
It is true that talk of abuse of discretion has entered the cases. Perhaps the origin of this talk is the careless headnote using this language in Illinois v. Allen, 397 U.S. at 338, 90 S.Ct. at 1058. The basis of the headnote is Justice Black saying at 347: “There is nothing whatsoever in the record to show that the judge did not act completely within his discretion.” But this unnecessary dictum was not the way Justice Black had formulated the question before the court. In Woodard v. Perrin, 692 F.2d 220, 222 (1st Cir.1982), the court manages to put the two standards as alternatives, finding that the state judge did not abuse his discretion and alternatively that the judge did not deny the defendant a fair trial. Finally, the erroneous standard crept into our circuit in Wilson v. McCarthy, 770 F.2d 1482, 1485 (9th Cir.1985), where it is stated baldly: “We review a trial court’s decision to use shackles under an abuse of discretion standard.” Woodard and Harrell which are cited in support of this statement do not in fact support it. If there was any argument that we are still bound by the erroneous statement of the standard we are now liberated by the correct phrasing of it in Stewart.
Our task is to determine whether the right of counsel was denied and whether a *730fair trial under the circumstances was denied.
THE DUE PROCESS BALANCING REQUIRED OF THE TRIAL JUDGE
The court that tried Spain was required to balance the danger to the court of not shackling him against the prejudice and harm that would result to him from shackling. To appreciate the situation in which the trial court found itself, consideration must be given to the context provided by Spain’s membership in the Black Panther Party, by Spain’s own history of violence against law enforcement officers, and by the murder of a Marin County trial judge and the kidnapping of the judge, the prosecutor and three jurors that had been carried out by Panthers in 1970 in the same Marin courthouse in which Spain went on trial.
The Black Panther Party. Here is not the place to attempt a definitive assessment of the aims and methods of the Black Panther Party. The view that it was the target of official surveillance, provocation and persecution has been frequently stated by its members and sympathizers. Here we only consider the prevalent official view of the Black Panther Party that a reasonable judge would have had to take into account in considering what Spain might do in his courtroom.
The most famous Black Panther slogan, known to everyone at the time, was “Off the pigs.” It was generally understood that these words meant, “Kill police officers.” See, e.g. “Gun-Barrel Politics: The Black Panther Party, 1966-71”, Report by the Committee on International Security, House of Representatives, H.R.Rep. 92470, 92nd Cong., 1st Sess., 43 (1971). The Party aimed at making a revolution. The Party emphasized armed struggle and guerilla warfare. The Party planned violence, incited terrorism and spread inflammatory rhetoric designed to encourage homicidal assaults upon the police. Id. 133-35. The articles and cartoons of the party publication reflected a “continuous endorsement of the physical extermination of police officers.” Id. at 34. Cartoons in this publication graphically demonstrated panthers attacking pigs in police uniforms and actually killing them. Id. at 37. A virus of violence had been released in the community.
Spain’s Own History. In 1967 at the age of 17, Spain committed a robbery and in cold blood murdered a man with whom he had no previous relationship. People v. Gray, 263 Cal.App.2d 692, 69 Cal.Rptr. 751 (1968). Convicted of this murder, he was confined to Soledad Prison. Spain v. Procunier, 408 F.Supp. 534, 539 (N.D.Cal.1976), modified in part, aff'd in part, rev’d in part, 600 F.2d 189 (9th Cir.1979) (Kennedy, J.). While Spain was in Soledad, a prominent Black Panther, George Jackson, and others, not including Spain, were indicted for the murder of Officer Mills within the prison. Id. at 540. Jackson was transferred to San Quentin. Id. Spain, viewed as a trouble-maker for his militant views, was also transferred to the Adjustment Center at San Quentin. Id. at 539. The Adjustment Center is still known as the place where the most violent inmates are kept. People v. Wright, 48 Cal.3d 168, 214, 255 Cal.Rptr. 853, 768 P.2d 72 (1989).
On August 21, 1971 Jackson took over the cell block with a weapon. He and his confederates in the space of one-half hour then murdered three bound and helpless officers, Jere Patrick Graham, Paul William Kresnes and Frank DeLeon, and two fellow prisoners, Johnny Lynn and Ronald Kane. They also cut the throats of, but did not succeed in killing, Officers Breckin-ridge and Rubiaco. Spain was one of Jackson’s confederates. Spain v. Rushen, 543 F.Supp. 757, 760 (N.D.Cal.1982), aff'd without opinion, 701 F.2d 186 (9th Cir.), vacated on other grounds, Rushen v. Spain, 464 U.S. 114, 104 S.Ct. 453, 78 L.Ed.2d 267 (1983) (plurality opinion). He had conspired with him to make the escape, secreting an escape map and ammunition in the cell. At the time Jackson took over the cell block he gave Spain an explosive that Spain still carried when he was recaptured. The events were front page news, San Francisco Sunday Examiner & Chronicle, Aug. 22, 1971, at 1, col 1, and made an indelible impression on correctional authorities, on *731law enforcement officers, and indeed on anyone concerned with law and justice in the United States. The impression reinforced another indelible impression made a year earlier in the Marin County Courthouse.
The 1970 Murder of the Trial Judge, the Maiming of the Prosecutor, and the Kidnapping of the Jurors. On August 7,1970 James McClain was on trial in the Marin County Courthouse before Judge Harold J. Haley. The offense charged was stabbing a San Quentin officer with a knife within the prison. McClain conducted his own defense, calling a number of fellow prisoners as witnesses. According to the Marin Independent, August 7, 1970, p. 4 the judge had ruled that McClain should not be chained lest the jury be prejudiced. In the middle of McClain’s case, Jonathan Jackson, George Jackson’s brother, entered the courtroom and took command of it with guns. According to the New York Times, August 16,1970, he was to be eulogized for his actions as a “courageous revolutionary” by the Black Panther Minister of Defense.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, August 8, 1970, at 1, col. 8, Jackson shouted, “This is it, gentlemen. Everybody freeze.” The courtroom became his. He gave one prisoner-witness a revolver, another prisoner an automatic pistol, and McClain a sawed-off shotgun; he himself kept a carbine. The armed men then kidnapped Judge Haley, Assistant District Attorney Gary W. Thomas, and three women jurors, binding them with wire and forcing them out of the courtroom, into a parking lot near the courthouse, and into the rear of a van in the lot. The shotgun was strapped to the judge’s throat. Thomas attempted to escape and was shot and wounded so as to be paralyzed for life. Juror Maria Graham was shot in the right arm. Juror Joyce Rodoni was hospitalized for shock. Two of the prisoners and Johnathan Jackson were shot and killed. Half of Judge Haley’s face was blown off by his captors; he died instantly.
Circumstantial evidence existed that Jonathan Jackson had not acted alone in planning the invasion of the courtroom. The State of California had sufficient evidence to obtain an indictment of another, not yet in custody, for aiding and abetting. Similarly, the state had sufficient evidence to obtain an indictment of a different person as the coeonspirator of George Jackson and Spain, not yet in custody but involved in aiding their planned escape from San Quentin. At the time of Spain’s trial for murder it was not unreasonable for the trial judge to believe that there were conspirators at large capable of attempting his rescue by similar violence.
The Continuing Dangers. The trial judge made plain that the subject of changing the condition of restraints was “constantly” in his mind. He looked for the “hoped-for opportunity to change the condition of restraint.” The reason that he did not change his mind was that a stream of incidents — a number of which he did not make public, lest the publicity prejudice the defendants — was brought to his attention which made him unwilling to risk the security of his courtroom by relieving Spain and his codefendants of their restraints.
The remarkable ability of prisoners to cause serious harm to guards and to other prisoners in the twinkling of an eye and with the most ordinary utensils or articles of furniture has been vividly set out in Bruscino v. Carlson, 854 F.2d 162, 165 (7th Cir.1988). Light bulbs, mop wringers, sharpened tooth brushes, sharp pencils and bare hands have all been employed by prisoners held within a maximum security prison to maim or to kill. Id. What could be done in a prison could be done in a courtroom by a prisoner not merely ill-disposed to the system but actually a member of a revolutionary group committed to the use of violence — a prisoner who would not be deterred by any prospect of increased prison time, a prisoner whose indictment for murder of prison guards reflected at least probable cause that he was capable of the most extreme violence. The judge who tried Spain knew what had happened to the prosecutor and to the jury and the judge who had tried James McClain. The judge had to balance the danger present in this extraordinary context against what chaining would do to Spain.
*732THE EFFECTS OF THE CHAINING
An evidentiary hearing was held in connection with the present petition. Charles S. Garry, Spain’s former counsel, testified that Spain was so preoccupied with the chains that “we weren’t able to discuss another solitary thing.” Spain, he stated, was “not mentally, emotionally, or in any other way in the courtroom. I had no attorney-client rapport or relationship with him.” There was, Garry testified, “No way in the world I could communicate with him.” He also testified that on the basis of Spain’s complaint about the effects of the chains, he filed a petition for habeas corpus during the trial with the California Court of Appeals. The petition was denied.
Dr. Delman was a psychologist who saw Spain four times seven or eight years after the trial. He reviewed Spain’s prison psychiatric file but did not speak to any correctional officers, prison officials or persons on the side of the prosecution. He interviewed only Spain, his friends, and his supporters. He testified on the basis of this research that “Spain was so depressed and pessimistic and beaten by the chains, that I don't believe he was capable of cooperating in a reasonable way.”
Dr. Sutton, a staff psychiatrist at San Quentin, had examined Spain before and at the time of the trial. She testified that his health problems were minor, that he was suffering from neither psychiatric disease nor elinically-recognizable depression at the time of trial, and that the shackles were no substantial impediment to his cooperating with counsel or testifying at the trial.
Spain himself testified that he suffered pain throughout the trial, that his waist was rubbed almost raw by the chains, that he suffered headaches, hemorrhoids, back pain, and loss of weight. He stated that he did not testify at the trial because he did not see how he could be believed by the jury if he was in chains.
Spain also testified that the state had provided him with valium for his headaches and that he did not use all the tablets provided but had secreted 177 pills. He did not deny that he had been examined by Dr. William Clark on March 21, 1975 and pronounced to be “in perfect health.” He also testified that the state provided him with a rubber cushion he could sit on after the state had, before the trial, provided him with surgery for his hemorrhoids. On cross-examination he testified he did not know what caused the hemorrhoids or his back problems.
As to his communications with his counsel, Charles Garry, he testified that he discussed with Garry his defense that he blacked out at the time of the murders; that he discussed with Garry various testimony at the trial against him offered by prison guards; that he discussed with Garry the incriminating evidence found in his cell after the murders; and that he had seven or eight investigators working for him and conferred with some of the investigators and with Garry as to his defense.
Spain’s counsel in this proceeding introduced transcripts of an earlier federal ha-beas corpus proceeding before Judge Zirpo-li, held while the Marin murder trial was in progress. Counsel for Spain directed his attention to the testimony Spain had then given as to damages the chains had done to his wrists and to his testimony in that proceeding that he had been unable to talk about his case confidentially to his attorney. Spain read into the record his testimony before Judge Zirpoli that the chains made him feel that he was having to prove he was a human being.
At the conclusion of this evidentiary hearing the magistrate made certain findings. Citing the incidents already quoted of Garry’s testimony, she found that it was “marked by hyperbole” but nonetheless gave it some discounted weight. She accepted him as an expert in the field of criminal defense and his testimony in that role that only exceptional circumstances, not present here, would have led him not to have put Spain on the witness stand. She recited the conflicting testimony of the psychologist and psychiatrist and found the value of their opinions to be “limited.” She proceeded to evaluate the effects of the shackling.
*733In making this evaluation the magistrate began with a statement from a California case that shackling “inevitably tends to confuse and embarrass the defendant and thereby materially to abridge and preju-dicially affect his constitutional right of defense.” She explicitly found that, contrary to Garry’s testimony, Spain was not entirely “out of it.” But she went on to say, “The evidence before us clearly establishes that the shackling preoccupied Spain during the trial.” As evidence she then cited Spain’s declaration filed in July 1975 with his habeas corpus petition in the federal court and his testimony before Judge Zirpoli in that proceeding on being made to feel non-human. She ended up concluding that the chains “were a significant factor in inhibiting Spain’s ability to cooperate with his counsel.” Her conclusion coincided with her starting point in the California case she quoted.
The magistrate also assessed the effects of chains on Spain’s decision not to testify. The state took the position that the evidence was such that he would have gained nothing by testifying. The magistrate declined to review the evidence. Instead she concluded that, as the chains interfered with his ability to cooperate with counsel, they also must have effected his decision-making as to testifying. These conclusions of fact are very little different from the magistrate’s starting point in the California case that said shackles “materially abridge and prejudicially affect the constitutional right of defense.”
In a separate section entitled “Findings of Fact,” the magistrate concluded:
1. Petitioner’s shackling at trial aggravated his existing medical and psychological problems, and pained and preoccupied him during that time.
2. Petitioner’s shackling interfered with his ability to communicate with his trial counsel and to participate in the preparation of his own defense.
3. Petitioner’s shackling impeded his ability to testify on his own behalf.
The district court reviewed the magistrate’s report but did not take new evidence and so was dependent on the magistrate’s findings of fact. The district court, however, paraphrased Finding 2 of the magistrate as a finding that “petitioner was so preoccupied by the chains that he was unable to cooperate with his attorney during trial.” As the basis for this conclusion the district court quoted Spain’s 1975 habeas corpus petition and his testimony before Judge Zirpoli. As to Spain’s ability to testify, the district court concluded: “Not only did the shackling unconstitutionally place on petitioner the burden of proving his innocence as discussed in Part A above, but at the same time it deprived him of his ability to do so.” In support of this statement the district court noted that it was Spain’s “preoccupation with the shackles and his medical problems” that made him unable to testify while his chained code-fendants did testify.
As an appellate court we review the findings of fact of the district court under Fed.R.App.P. 52(a): “Findings of fact shall not be set aside unless clearly erroneous, and due regard should be given to the opportunity of the trial court to judge the credibility of the witnesses.” Review of factual findings is for clear error and when findings “are based on determinations regarding the credibility of witnesses, Rule 52(a) demands even greater deference to the trial court findings.” Anderson v. Bessemer City, 470 U.S. 564, 575, 105 S.Ct. 1504, 1512, 84 L.Ed.2d 518 (1985).
However, a trial judge may not “insulate his findings from review by denominating them credibility determinations_ Documents or objective evidence may contradict the witness’ story; or the story itself may be so internally inconsistent or implausible on its face that a reasonable fact-finder would not credit it. Where such factors are present, the court of appeals may well find clear error even in the finding based on a credibility determination.” Id.
Anderson is carefully crafted to require deference from the appellate court but does not relieve that court from “its responsibility to correct findings of fact when it is left ‘with a definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been committed.’ ” See Goodman v. Lukens Steel Co., 777 F.2d 113, 128 *734(3d Cir.1985) (quoting United States v. United States Gypsum, 333 U.S. 364, 395, 68 S.Ct. 525, 542, 92 L.Ed. 746 (1948)). There are occasions when focus on the evidence will leave the firm conviction of error on the part of the appeals court, e.g., Goodman at 129. A trial court, for example, is not free to accept testimony from a witness without regard to that witness’ “obvious bias.” Henson v. CIR, 835 F.2d 850, 853 (11th Cir.1988). As Anderson itself pointed out, if a witness' statements are internally inconsistent the witness does not have to be believed.
In this case the magistrate heavily discounted the testimony of the psychologist and the psychiatrist and applied the gentle term “hyperbole” to statements of Charles Garry which were wildly improbable, contradicted the statements of Spain himself, and deprived Garry of any pretense of being an objective and reliable witness. For hard evidence as to the effect of the chains on Spain’s health and on his ability to communicate with Garry and prepare his defense, the magistrate relied on Spam’s own declaration in connection with his earlier habeas corpus petition and his testimony before Judge Zirpoli in that proceeding. The district court used the same evidence in its findings on this subject.
The evidence on which the magistrate and the district court relied was, therefore, documentary evidence — not live testimony where demeanor and inflection are important, but pieces of paper recording words which we can review as well as the district court, using the clear error standard of review of what the district court has found as fact. The transcript of the habeas corpus petition before Judge Zirpoli was introduced into this case. Spam’s declaration and testimony in that proceeding are indeed the chief basis for the findings in the present case. We are equally free to take judicial notice of the judicial findings made in that proceeding.
The proceeding before Judge Zirpoli was directed against the state director of corrections, the warden of San Quentin, and certain correctional officers at San Quentin. Spain v. Procunier, 408 F.Supp. 534. Spain, along with Hugo Pinell, Fleeta Drumgo, Luis Talamantez, David Johnson, and Willie Tate challenged their confinement in the Adjustment Center in San Quentin; attacked practices of the defendants interfering with their right of access to effective assistance of counsel and access to the courts; and complained of a lack of adequate medical care and other repressive measures detrimental to their physical and emotional health. Id. at 536. Evidentiary hearings, lasting 29 days, were held on their allegations. District Judge Zirpoli gave his decision on January 14, 1976 and modified it February 10, 1976. At the time of Judge Zirpoli’s decision, Spain had been on trial in the Superior Court of Marin County since March 1975.
Spain explicitly claimed impermissible interferences with his right to the effective assistance of counsel and his right of access to the court. The interferences, he contended, were caused by the conditions of his confinement and by “certain practices” of the defendants, including their use of chains. The issues litigated between Spain and defendants in the case were decided against Spain. Judge Zirpoli explicitly ruled:
It is evident from this very case and the evidence submitted in these proceedings that plaintiffs have had and continue to have effective assistance of counsel and access to the courts. Id. at 546.
Judge Zirpoli, who was not insensitive to the complaints of Spain and his fellow petitioners, ordered that neck chains not be used and that any other mechanical restraints, except handcuffs, not be used unless the prisoners presented “an actual or imminent threat of bodily harm or escape.” Id. at 547. The order applied both to Spain’s treatment in San Quentin and to his treatment at the murder trial. Nonetheless, after entering this broad order, Judge Zirpoli explicitly modified it to say that it did not apply “to the state trial proceeding in the courthouse, in the courtroom in Marin County.”
These rulings, made after hearings in federal court contemporaneous with the Marin murder trial, bear heavily on the *735credibility of Spain’s present contentions. He was found able to have the effective assistance of counsel. He was found to have access to the courts. He failed to show that he was being denied due process of law by the state of California. With full opportunity to challenge the conditions to which he was subject at the time, he was unable to show that the state had an obligation under the Constitution of the United States to remove the chains because they interfered with his right of access to the courts or his right to counsel.
It is pure speculation to suppose that Younger v. Harris, 401 U.S. 37, 46, 91 S.Ct. 746, 751, 27 L.Ed.2d 669 (1971) inhibited Judge Zirpoli from ordering the chains off during the trial. Younger abstention is not absolute. Federal interventions in a state trial is entirely appropriate when “extraordinary circumstances” render the state proceeding unfair. Id. at 53-54, 91 S.Ct. at 754-55; see also Middlesex County Ethics Commn. v. Garden State Bar Ass’n., 457 U.S. 423, 437, 102 S.Ct. 2515, 2524, 73 L.Ed.2d 116 (1987). No federal judge worth his salt would think it a duty to do nothing if a state prisoner was being subjected to conditions tantamount to torture. Judge Zirpoli was not a do-nothing judge. If this court’s analysis of the case is correct, extraordinary circumstances justifying his intervention were present.
Rather than speculate to his reasons as the majority does at footnote 5, we may take note of Judge Zirpoli’s clear distinction between the trial in his court and the murder trial in Marin. In his court the defendants were seeking benefits; they had every reason to present themselves as model prisoners. In the murder trial their objective, as Judge Zirpoli himself observed, was to frustrate the proceedings. Under those circumstances, unless due process was being denied, there was no reason for a federal court to intervene even though that court had found the chains in other circumstances to be an unconstitutional imposition.
The rationale for deference to a trial judge on credibility is the trial judge’s opportunity to evaluate the live witnesses. Judge Zirpoli evaluated the very testimony on which the magistrate and the district court in this case relied. Judge Zirpoli made these findings explicitly contradicting present Spain’s claims:
Plaintiffs were found to be in good physical condition following physical examinations by Dr. Kasch and Dr. Oliva, and psychiatric evaluations disclosed no psychoses. Findings by plaintiffs’ doctors and psychiatrists to the contrary, in the court’s view, were clearly controverted or at best constitute a difference of medical opinion. The allegation of improper use of drugs required competent expert testimony and no such testimony was provided by plaintiffs. Some of the plaintiffs have athlete’s foot. This is not a medical problem, but rather a matter of personal hygiene.
Spain v. Procunier, 408 F.Supp. at 546.
This court now finds Spain to have had “a chronic back problem” exacerbated by the chains. This court now believes Spain’s assertion of April 1975 that he was frequently experiencing “muscle cramps, spasms, and pulled muscles.” This court now accepts Spain’s claim that his physical condition “deteriorated markedly.” This court now concludes that Spain was found to have attended his trial for seventeen months in a “physically and mentally debilitated condition.” All of these conclusions are contrary to the contemporaneous findings of Judge Zirpoli.
Judge Zirpoli’s explicit finding was that Spain had not shown that his physical condition was other than good. This court attempts to avoid the impact of this finding by implying that Spain could have been found in good physical condition in San Quentin while not being in good physical condition in the courthouse. It is difficult to see how his “condition” could have “deteriorated markedly,” as the court finds, while he remained in “good physical condition” at San Quentin. It is difficult to see how a judge so meticulous in his findings as to health as to note the presence of athlete’s foot would have missed the major ailments Spain claims he suffered.
*736The magistrate found that Spain was impeded in consultation with his counsel and therefore also impeded in his ability to testify. The district court inflated the finding of the magistrate to a finding that Spain was unable to cooperate with his counsel. This court accepts the judgment of the district court based on these findings. All of them are contrary to the contemporaneous findings of Judge Zirpoli. The district court’s inflated finding has no basis at all in the record.
These findings are also contrary to what we know from the judicial record in Spain v. Procunier actually happened: Chained as he was, except in the federal court itself, Spain was able to communicate with Garry and to launch a habeas corpus proceeding so successful that it at first relieved him of chains even at the Marin murder trial. A prisoner and counsel who succeed so well do not plausibly contend that they could not deliberate together or prepare together or decide together.
THE EXISTENCE OF ALTERNATIVES TO CHAINING
The majority concludes that alternatives to chaining were available, and that the district court failed to consider them. The evidence does not support this conclusion, and the defendant failed to satisfy his burden of proof on this issue. Spain offered no evidence as to what alternatives the trial court could have adopted. The magistrate made no findings on this subject. The district court found, however, that the shackles were not used as “a last resort.” The district court said that the trial court “should have given the defendants a warning that if the disruptions did not cease, then shackles would be imposed.” The district court accepted “the argument that complete unchaining would have worked.”
Without any evidence at all, and in disregard of Spain’s repeated acts of misconduct in pretrial proceedings but operating apparently on a hunch, the district court came to the conclusion that complete unchaining “would have worked.” The district court did not observe that Spain had taken the position that not only must he be completely unchained but that all of the defendants must be completely unchained. Garry, his counsel, stated unequivocally to the trial court that Spain would not accept unshackling unless his codefendants were unshackled.
The district court evidently understood literally the phrase “last resort” used by the Supreme Court in Allen, with the implication that chains were to be applied only after other measures had been tried and failed. But the Supreme Court had spoken of chaining combined with gagging as a last resort, and it had already been made plain that the term “last resort” was not literal and that chains could be applied in cases of “extreme need.” Harrell v. Israel, 672 F.2d 632 (7th Cir.1982), or in cases “urgently demanding that action.” Tyars v. Finner, 709 F.2d 1274, 1284 (9th Cir.1983). The teaching of those cases had been summed up as meaning that shackling is “proper where there is a serious threat of escape or danger to those in and around the courtroom.” Wilson v. McCarthy, 770 F.2d 1482, 1485 (9th Cir.1985). The district court did not apply this standard.
The district court also drew attention to the fact that Spain had testified in Judge Zirpoli’s court without chains and without misbehaving. The district court declared that this conduct “would at the least entitle him to one opportunity to show that he would not disrupt proceedings in a courtroom with many security guards present.”
The district court was aided in its guessing by an erroneous understanding of the law, viz., that there was some kind of entitlement to disrupt a trial before chaining could be imposed. The district court alternatively phrased this position as an entitlement after Spain’s good behavior in the federal court before Judge Zirpoli or as a general right of defendants to be warned at least once before their disruptive behavior took place. This view of the law is squarely contrary to controlling circuit authority. Loux v. United States, 389 F.2d 911 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, 393 U.S. 867, 89 S.Ct. 151, 21 L.Ed.2d 135 (1968).
This court, while affirming the judgment, takes a different tack from either of those *737taken by the district court by stating that absence from the courtroom should have been adopted as an alternative. This court acknowledges that “some measure” was needed to maintain the security of the courtroom. But the court in this case goes directly contrary to other binding circuit precedent as to the burden of proof of the existence or absence of alternative remedies. The law of the circuit is that “it is incumbent upon the defendant to show that less drastic alternatives were available.” Wilson at 1486. Spain prevails here having made no showing whatsoever on this issue.
Neither the magistrate nor the district judge made any findings that Spain proved the existence of alternatives that the trial judge could have adopted. Instead, this court embarks on its own fact-finding, and, searching the trial record, finds the following: (1) On November 30, 1973, in a pretrial proceeding, Spain moved in his own handwriting “for an order allowing me to remain in San Quentin.” There was no indication that this waiver applied to the trial that began in 1975. (2) On January 11, 1974, Spain requested absence from a pretrial hearing. His counsel, arguing this motion, declared that if “there is any shackling whatsoever” Spain would not want to come into the courtroom. (3) On March 3, 1985, Spain requested to be removed from the courtroom. The court granted his request. (4) On March 18, 1978, Spain waived his right to be present at a pretrial hearing on March 18,1978. (5) On April 11, 1975 Spain signed a waiver of his personal presence but his counsel represented this request as one to be excused on selected days. The court held a hearing on this motion and ruled that Spain could be absent from pretrial proceeding but must appear during jury selection and trial.
The record thus establishes that Spain moved five times to be excused from pretrial proceedings. The trial judge twice granted his motions. The trial judge denied his request to be excused on selected days during the trial. Spain did not renew that motion as the trial wore on and as, according to his testimony, the pain worsened. The cumulative effects of the restraints at trial were not presented to the trial judge. Spain does not sustain his burden even when the appellate court undertakes it on his behalf.
In concluding that absence was an acceptable alternative to shackling, the majority ignores the importance of the defendant’s presence in the courtroom. Face-to-face, person-to-person confrontation of the accused by his accusers is fundamental, rooted in the demands of human nature, in ancient and long-established practice and in the Sixth Amendment. Coy v. Iowa, — U.S. —, 108 S.Ct. 2798, 2801, 101 L.Ed.2d 857 (1988). Such a right could never have been waived by the partial, unrepeated waiver of trial presence attempted by Spain and Charles Garry.
In addition to shifting the burden of proof and deciding in favor of Spain although he has produced no evidence as to less drastic alternatives, this court has radically misinterpreted statements and action by the trial judge. This court declares that “the trial court never really considered the alternatives to shackling the defendants in order to secure the courtroom.” As evidence of this conclusion, this court has gone not to any findings made below, but to the record of the state trial, and has drawn from it two statements, one made by the trial judge January 11, 1974 and the other made by him on March 24, 1975. The first statement reads: “I have to consider all of the options from the total release of restraint to continuation of the existing restraint.” The second statement reads, “The court has considered every possible opportunity between freeing all or some inmate-defendants entirely from restraint, to full restraint for all inmate-defendants.” Our court, having quoted those statements, goes on to say: “These statements make it plain that the trial court actually did not consider ‘all of the options.’ ”
Such a method of interpretation of a trial judge’s statements is truly extraordinary. Black means white. The trial judge says twice that he considered all of the options. Our court says that these statements mean the trial judge did not consider all of the options. There is no basis in any evidentia-ry findings made by magistrate or district court for these unusual feats of interpretation.
*738If one looks at what the trial judge said and did one finds that he stated for the record at the end of the trial in 1976 that he had heard repeated motions for reconsideration of the restraints imposed “and the subject of changing the restraint condition was constantly in my mind.” The testimony of Spain’s counsel is that at no time did Spain “seek to waive his presence,” so that alternative was not presented by motion to the court. The judge, however, on June 30, 1975 made “the ruling” that “defendants could stay at the prison voluntarily absenting themselves if they desired to do so.” The clerk’s minutes for that day show that Spain was not present and had filed a waiver as to being present. The burden was on Spain to produce the evidence to show whether absence as an alternative to shackling continued to be open to him. He did not do so. This court departs from controlling authority in relieving him of the burden.
CONCLUSION
John (“Johnny”) Spain is a complex, intelligent human being. Through no fault of his, he was subjected to terrible suffering as a child. The outrages inflicted on him and the deep alienation he experienced in childhood undoubtedly account for the attitude he formed and the rage that was expressed in the homicidal outburst which he committed in 1967. Since that date he has spent almost all his life in prison. In recent years, according to information submitted in this case, he has been a model prisoner. He has inspired the unswerving and devoted service of his present counsel. No human being is beyond redemption. Johnny Spain appears to be a changed man. If it were our function to exercise the powers of clemency vested in the governor of California and to forgive what he has done, we might well exercise those powers.
On the other side are the dead who were his victims and what is owed the prosecutors who worked for six years to bring a difficult case to a verdict and who have worked thereafter to keep the judgment firm. They are entitled to have their work judged in accordance with law. Respect is due also to the jurors who put aside their own lives for over a year to hear the case of Spain and his co-defendants, found some innocent and some guilty. Fairness is finally due the trial judge who cannot with decency be portrayed as a torturer; rather, he was a highly conscientious man using his best judgment in possibly life-threatening circumstances.
What is most apparent in Spain’s deeply felt and continuing complaint about the chains is that he perceived them as an affront to his dignity as a human being. It was an affront to be physically restrained. But it was an affront that Spain’s conduct, in the trial court’s view, made necessary. It is no recognition of Spain’s dignity as a human being for us to dodge the question of whose conduct made the trial judge conclude that restraints were required. Ultimate responsibility for the trial court’s judgment of necessity rested with Spain.
In the end, we cannot decide the case out of compassion for Johnny Spain or out of regard for the judge. It is our task to apply the Constitution of the United States, respecting the power allotted to the states and the power allotted to federal district and appellate courts.
That a prisoner should be tried in chains is a terrible qualification of the kind of justice our courts are expected to give. But there are worse qualifications. To have concluded that Spain was untriable would have been to invite vengeance not according to law. To have tried Spain without chains would have been to put the other prisoners, guards, prosecutors, judge and jury at risk. Sometimes we speak metaphorically of profaning the temple of justice. The temple of justice in the Marin County Courthouse had been physically profaned by violent invasion. The trial judge had no obligation under our Constitution to risk a repetition of those bloody events.
The opinion of the court says that Spain should not have been chained but tried in absentia. If that had been done the petition before us now might allege that he had been deprived of his right to confront the witnesses against him and his right to confer immediately with counsel. In retrospect as an imagined alternative this *739course looks far better than it would have appeared if it had actually been done. In exercising our imagination as to how it might have gone we are actually substituting one discretionary judgment for another discretionary judgment.
Contrary to controlling authority, this court has put the burden of proof as to alternatives, or their absence, upon the state. Contrary to controlling authority, this court has upheld a judgment resting on the proposition that defendants who have repeatedly disrupted pretrial proceedings must be given an opportunity to misbehave at the trial itself before they are restrained. Contrary to the findings of the federal judge who heard the live evidence, this court credits Spain’s complaints. Contrary to the functions of federal courts under the Constitution, this court substitutes its discretion for the discretion of the state court that conducted the trial.
In extraordinary circumstances charged with danger the trial court balanced the risk against the harms and made a fair balance that one federal district judge found damaged neither the physical health of Spain nor his right to access to the courts nor his right to counsel. We have no authority to second-guess the procedure chosen and to overturn a verdict of murder fairly rendered thirteen years ago.