Court Opinion

ID: 9645408
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 21:23:39.241409+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:05:27.392826
License: Public Domain

MILLIKEN, Judge
(Concurring).
I concur in the conclusion of the majority opinion, but do not altogether agree with the reasoning by which that conclusion was reached. I think the writ was properly denied upon these two grounds: (1) There was no public record to which the petitioner had the right of access; and (2) it was within the discretionary power and right of the trial court not to require the transcript to be made and filed of record.
Let it be conceded that the trial of a case — particularly of a criminal prosecution — should take place under the public eye, although the constitutional right of a public trial is to safeguard the rights of the accused person and is for his benefit and is not the right or benefit of the state or any one else. Let it be granted also that publication of the proceedings taken at the trial of a Commonwealth case comes within the broad term of “freedom of the press.”
The hearing was no star chamber proceeding. The Commonwealth was represented by its attorney, and the defendant was present in person and represented by his attorney. Not everything said and done during the course of a trial is in open court or is a public proceeding. Proceedings before the court in chambers at which, in a criminal case, the defendant is present and represented by counsel, as here, are not rare. If the stenographer had not taken notes of the defendant’s statement, we may suppose that no one would seriously contend that the trial judge should be compelled to tell what was said there. The circumstance of transcribing the defendant’s statement in chambers is not of such transcendent importance as to convert the transcription into a public record.
The Circuit Court in this case had pending the defendant’s motion for a new trial upon stated grounds. I do not construe the law to be that in granting a motion the court is obliged to state its reasons. It had been indicated during the argument that the defendant, who had been convicted in one *938case and his punishment fixed at death, might withdraw his pleas of not guilty and plead guilty in both cases. If such a plea was to be made, it would have to be in person and in open court. Sec. 173, Criminal Code of Practice. This occurrence in chambers was but a preliminary thereto.
Should the judge in this case have declined to hear the defendant in the presence of counsel for both parties ? Whether he should or not is now beside the question. He did not decline, and promised the defendant that newspaper reporters would not be present. Doubtless, the defendant believed that they would not be given access to his statement. Should the judge be now required by this court to break faith with the defendant? Should he not be allowed to keep the confidence? It seems to me that it would be unconscionable all around and against the principle of good faith and the sound administration of justice to require the judge to breach the confidence. Above all else, assurance and confidence in the integrity of a judge are paramount.
The eminent authority, Wigmore on Evidence, Volume 8, Sec. 2376, after pointing put that communications by an informer with a judge are not privileged, adds:
“But is there not a distinct principle, by which communications in the nature of confessions, or similar confidences, made privately and not in open court, by parties who are implicated in a wrong or crime and desire guidance for their course of action, are privileged from disclosure by him, at his option? No obstruction to the course of justice can be apprehended by allowing such confidences to be preserved. The necessity and propriety, for the administration of justice, of assuring official confidence to, informants desiring to unburden themselves is even plainer when a judge is the repository of that .confidence, than in the case of prosecuting officials. The- judge is indeed the most- appropriate person to represent the Law’s confessor.
“The limits of the principle may be thus phrased:
“A judge of any court, who as such receives information upon a matter criminal or civil, from a person, whether party or not, confessing his own of-fence or liability, is privileged to withhold testimony to such information, if received in confidence, when called as a witness in any proceeding not tried before himself. Whether a judge should in a given case with propriety receive such information at all, or receive it with a pledge of confidence, is a matter of judicial ethics; but when once received, the privilege applies.”
I feel strongly that this was a matter to be determined by the judge in his discretion. Mandamus does not lie to control the exercise of a trial court’s discretion. Moreover, this court’s power under Section 110 of the Constitution authorizing it to control courts of inferior jurisdiction, it has been often said, will be exercised only to prevent injustice. The reduction of the penalty from death to life imprisonment can hardly be called an injustice to the defendant.
For these reasons I concur in the conclusion of the majority of the court to the effect that the petitioning newspapers are not entitled to the information sought.