Court Opinion

ID: 9636827
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 14:44:35.758234+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:13:44.717228
License: Public Domain

HEALY, Circuit Judge
(concurring).
I agree with what Judge DENMAN has said, and think, with him, that a new trial should be had from which the public is not excluded.
There was no genuine reason for the exclusion order. It was made at the instance of the judge, without any suggestion on the part of the prosecuting officers of the Territory. The defendant vigorously insisted on his constitutional right to a public trial. It is only under very exceptional circumstances that such right may properly be circumscribed, and no unusual circumstances were present here.
While I recognize the force of the statute (28 U.S.C.A. § 391) providing that errors are to be disregarded “which do not affect the substantial rights of the parties,” it must not be forgotten that in and of itself the right to a public trial is a substantial right, so substantial, indeed, as to be guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment.