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State v. Dixon6/3/2005
Dixon had Lobdell's preliminary hearing testimony to take into account, as well as Gomez' report. He should have been aware from the reference to a wall outlet that Gomez' report contained some imprecise language; he had been offered access to Gomez and to Exhibit 70, the gas pipe assembly. We agree with the trial court that in these circumstances the defendant should not have been significantly misled. What prejudice Dixon may have suffered, if any, from Gomez' including the supply pipe along with the flexible hose in his trial testimony resulted from defendant's being less able to cast doubt on the State's theory by playing up the difference between the opinions of Gomez and Lobdell. This would not be substantial prejudice so as to support a motion for mistrial. In these circumstances, Gomez' including the supply pipe along with the flexible hose in his trial testimony but not in his report was a matter for cross-examination rather than a mistrial. The trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying defendant's motion.
6. WAS DIXON DEPRIVED OF HIS RIGHT TO A PUBLIC TRIAL?
The trial of Ethan Griffin, who was charged with nearly all the same charges as Dixon, was scheduled to begin as soon as Dixon's trial was over. Griffin and Dixon could not be tried simultaneously because there was only one prosecution team. The jury for Griffin's trial was chosen before Dixon's trial concluded. Although it had been sworn to tell the truth during voir dire, at the time the Dixon verdicts were returned the Griffin jury had not been sworn and empaneled for the trial. In order to prevent the Griffin jury's deliberations from being tainted by information about the Dixon verdicts, the trial court closed the courtroom to media and spectators before reading the Dixon jury's verdicts. Defense counsel objected. In addition to the Dixon jury and court staff, only the defendant, counsel, and Dana Hudson's parents were allowed to remain in the courtroom while the verdicts were announced. After the verdicts were read, the trial judge told the jurors that they could not disclose their verdicts "until such time as I have directed that [they] may be disclosed in order to try and prevent any undue influence on the subsequent trial that we're about to start tomorrow. And I have said that [these] verdict would be released once I got the jury impaneled and sworn, which I expect to probably occur before noon tomorrow." In ruling on this issue, the trial judge announced that as soon as he had the Griffin jury "subject to direct control," he would release the verdicts and make available a complete transcript of the proceeding.
On appeal, Dixon concedes that the trial court's concern about jury contamination in Griffin's trial was legitimate and that criminal proceedings may be closed in certain circumstances. As the United States Supreme Court stated in Waller v. Georgia, 467 U.S. 39, 45, 81 L.Ed. 2d 31, 104 S.Ct. 2210 (1984), "the right to an open trial may give way in certain cases to other rights or interests, such as the defendant's right to a fair trial or the government's interest in inhibiting disclosure of sensitive information. Such circumstances will be rare, however, and the balance of interests must be struck with special care." The court's review of this question of law is unlimited. See State v. White, 275 Kan. 580, 597, 67 P.3d 138 (2003).
The State does not suggest that a defendant's right to a public trial does not apply to announcement of the verdict. The question in Waller was whether a defendant's right to an open trial applied to a suppression hearing, and the Supreme Court concluded that it did. 467 U.S. at 43, 48-50. The only instance in which Waller has been cited in a Kansas c
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 Kansas Personal Injury Attorneys
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