Friday, January 03, 2014

U.S. v. Dharni (9th Cir. - Jan. 3, 2014)

Judge Wallace is right.  Temporarily kicking spectators out of the courtroom during voir dire because there's a shortage of seats doesn't constitute reversible error.  There may have been better ways of doing what went down here; in particular, the judge should have made sure to invite back the people waiting out in the hall as seats became available.

But that doesn't mean that defendant gets a retrial.  Sorry about that.