TRIALS-RIGHT TO "PUBLIC TRIAL"-POWER OF JUDGE TO EXCLUDE GENERAL PUBLIC

Authors

Francis T. Goheen, University of Michigan Law SchoolFollow

Abstract

Convinced of the desirability of such action, a judge, conducting the trial of a criminal case, wishes to clear the court room of all or a portion of the spectators. To what extent may he legitimately do so? He is necessarily limited by the provision in the constitution of almost every state and in the Sixth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States that in "all criminal prosecutions the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial." The extent to which the trial court may go in clearing the court room has been most often tested in those cases wherein defendants were on trial for rape or some other sex crime. Courts often feel that it is not for the best interest of society to parade dirty, scandalous, and obscene matters in open court and, more important in the individual case, the presence of a large audience often produces such embarrassment for certain witnesses, most often the prosecutrix, that it is difficult if not impossible for the state to produce the detailed account of the act which it is necessary to prove in order to convict of the crime of rape.

Recommended Citation

Francis T. Goheen, TRIALS-RIGHT TO "PUBLIC TRIAL"-POWER OF JUDGE TO EXCLUDE GENERAL PUBLIC, 35 Mich. L. Rev. 474 (1937).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol35/iss3/8