Court Opinion

ID: 9640939
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 17:18:59.190757+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:10:33.861880
License: Public Domain

DWYER, Judge,
dissenting.
I am in respectful disagreement with the majority’s conclusion that the subpoenaing of appellant’s relatives denied appellant his constitutional right to a public trial. Even taking appellant’s argument in the best light to him, there simply was no denial of a public trial.
The majority gives an excellent recital of the state of the law throughout various and sundry jurisdictions concerning full and partial closure. Unfortunately for the majority’s reasoning, this case involves the subpoenaing of witnesses, not the closure of a trial. The trial judge in no wise ordered a closure, full or partial. What did occur was that the State subpoenaed five of the appellant’s relatives: several of whom were present in the courtroom and, as the majority notes, several of whom were not. Moreover, it was the appellant who asked for the rule excluding subpoenaed witnesses.
Although appellant claims that he was greatly prejudiced by the exclusion of five of his relatives, he did not make a motion to quash the subpoenas. Unless a motion to quash is filed, witnesses will normally be placed under the rule. The trial court noted that had appellant filed a motion to quash the subpoenas, he might have held a hearing on the issue. In the absence of such a motion, he placed the witnesses under the rule. Under Rule 36(a), Tenn.R. App.P., appellant should not be granted relief now when he failed to take the action *642of filing a motion to quash, which was available to him, and could have nullified any harmful effect that may have flowed from the issuance of the subpoena.
The majority basely concludes that the sole possible explanation for the State’s subpoenas was to exclude the relatives and therefore make it easier for appellant’s children to prevaricate on the witness stand about how their father molested them. For several reasons, the majority’s logic does not persuade.
First, all attorneys who have actual trial experience know that, in the name of caution, all possible witnesses should be subpoenaed. That fact does not necessitate that all those witnesses will be called. For example, an experienced attorney will leave witnesses in reserve for use in rebuttal if it becomes necessary. Furthermore, experienced trial attorneys should know that a court very rarely delves into the motivation behind a party’s desire to subpoena a witness.
Second, the majority says it is “crystal clear” that the assistant attorney general never intended to call the relatives to the witness stand. Yet a reading of the excerpted transcript in the majority’s opinion reveals that the assistant attorney general said that he very well might call them as witnesses. The trial court related that it did not believe that the State subpoenaed those witnesses for the sole purpose of excluding them. It is, therefore, mere conjecture by the majority to assume that the State had no intention of not calling them. Furthermore, the trial court found as fact that no one was excluded from the trial and no one was prevented from entering into the courtroom, constituting a flat repudiation that the proceedings were not public.
Moreover, we do not find that the exclusion of five relatives constituted a denial of public trial. The five persons were excluded because they were potential witnesses. There is no evidence in the record to show that any other spectators — family, friend, or otherwise — were excluded. From this record, there is no evidentiary support that all of appellant’s relatives or friends were excluded. In fact, affidavits in support of appellant’s motion for new trial reflect that a Brenda Sams and a Linda Sams were present during the entire trial.
Summed up, as found by the trial court, the appellant was convicted fair and square in an open forum and no one was excluded from that forum. In short, no closure occurred.
The majority excoriates the assistant attorney general, stating that he willfully “trampled” appellant’s constitutional rights and used the subpoenas “as a subterfuge to obtain the relatives removal.” Conversely, the evidence reflects an appellant who was fairly convicted on evidence which shows acts of gross, reprehensible and repulsive conduct in sexually abusing his minor children. For that conduct, of which the jury found him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, I would affirm the trial court’s judgment.