Bradshaw v. State

806 A.2d 131, 2002 Del. LEXIS 394, 2002 WL 1316238
CourtSupreme Court of Delaware
DecidedJune 13, 2002
Docket345, 2001
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 806 A.2d 131 (Bradshaw v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Delaware primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bradshaw v. State, 806 A.2d 131, 2002 Del. LEXIS 394, 2002 WL 1316238 (Del. 2002).

Opinion

VEASEY, Chief J.

In this appeal from the Superior Court we consider whether there was plain error when the defendant was absent from the courtroom both at the time his counsel, without authority, agreed to allow the trial court to give an Allen charge 1 to a deadlocked jury and also when the charge was actually given. We hold that the absence of the defendant was a violation of the right granted by Rule 43 of the Delaware Superior Court Rules of Criminal Procedure to be present “at every stage of the *133 trial....” 2 Furthermore, the defendant’s counsel was incapable of waiving this right for him, and the defendant’s absence for fifteen minutes at the end of a full day of jury deliberation does not constitute a personal waiver of this right.

The defendant was prejudiced by this error. First, he could well have had valuable input into the decision whether to give the Allen charge. Second, the fact that the jury was able to view his empty chair at this critical moment in their deliberations was inherently prejudicial. Accordingly, we reverse the judgment of the Superior Court and remand for a new trial.

Facts

The State charged Terrence Bradshaw, defendant below and appellant, with two counts of third degree rape 3 and one count of second degree unlawful sexual contact 4 for an incident involving Cassandra Winthrop, 5 the 12-year-old victim in this case. The State tried Bradshaw before a jury in Superior Court on May 1 and 2 of 2001.

Winthrop testified that in January of 2000 she went to the Days Inn hotel in New Castle with a group of people, one of whom was Bradshaw. They went to a room on the third floor. When they entered the room, Winthrop testified that she lay on one of the beds and Bradshaw lay on top of her. She testified that he took off her clothes and touched her vagina; that he removed his pants, put on a condom, and engaged in vaginal intercourse with her; and that he put his penis in her mouth. A manager at the Days Inn hotel testified that business records showed that Bradshaw had registered for Room 308 on January 28, 2000.

On cross-examination, Bradshaw’s counsel elicited the fact that Winthrop had told the police that they had not engaged in oral sex. He also elicited the fact that she had initially told her mother about the incident because she had become symptomatic for genital herpes.

Bradshaw testified in his defense. He denied having registered at the Days Inn hotel on January 28, 2000. He testified that the address listed on the Days Inn receipt was outdated and from an old identification card that he had lost. He also denied knowing or having had sexual intercourse with Winthrop. He testified that he had tested negative for genital herpes since the alleged encounter with Winthrop.

The jury retired for deliberations at 4:05 P.M. on May 2 and went home at 5:24 P.M. Before they left for the evening, the jury asked the Superior Court three questions about whether there was any other evidence that Bradshaw was at the hotel that evening, including, “Is there a signature from January 28th, 2000, that could have been checked?” The court responded, “The Court cannot comment on the evidence.” The jury returned to the court to continue their deliberations at 9:30 A.M. the following morning. At 3:10 P.M., the Superior Court received a note from the jury stating, “Dear Judge: We are unable to make a decision. Thanks.” At 3:17 P.M., the court convened the parties, with the exception of Bradshaw himself, who apparently was not immediately to be *134 found at that moment in the vicinity of the courtroom.

The State requested an Allen charge. This is a request from a trial court to the jury to attempt to come to a decision in the case without abandoning any firmly held beliefs. 6 The trial judge then observed that this was a two-day trial and “not a murder trial,” and that “it’s my experience that in such cases, an Allen Charge is probably not going to be fruitful.”

The trial judge asked whether there was a “request for an Allen Charge.” Bradshaw’s counsel responded to this question, voicing his discomfort at proceeding without his client, who could not be immediately located. His counsel claimed that Bradshaw had been at the courthouse all day, and that he had seen him an hour before. Bradshaw’s counsel speculated that he could have gone out “to get a bite to eat....”

Both Bradshaw’s counsel and the bailiff looked for Bradshaw unsuccessfully. After a very brief search for Bradshaw, his counsel made an “independent decision to join the prosecutor’s request for an Allen Charge.... ” He stated, “I can’t imagine that the case would, from the defense perspective, go any better than it did on the occasion of this trial.” The jury then entered the courtroom at 8:25 P.M., fifteen minutes after the jury’s note to the trial judge and eight minutes after the Superior Court reconvened. The trial judge then polled the jury to see whether further deliberations might be fruitful. A number of people indicated that it would not. Some, however, did not respond. The trial judge then gave an Allen charge to the jury. Bradshaw was not present for the reading of the Allen charge to the jury. At 1:50 P.M. on May 4, the jury reconvened and returned a verdict of not guilty on one of the rape counts and guilty on the other two charges.

The Right to be Present Under Rule 43

A defendant’s right to be present at his own trial has two dimensions: a constitutional one and one based on the Delaware Superior Court Rules of Criminal Procedure. The United States Supreme Court has ruled that due process guarantees a defendant’s right to be personally present “whenever [the defendant’s] presence has a relation, reasonably substantial, to the fullness of his opportunity to defend against the charge.” 7 In applying this test, courts ask whether the defendant could personally “give advice or suggestion or even [decide] to supersede his lawyers altogether and conduct the trial himself.” 8 Thus, a defendant’s constitutional right to be present wanes when pure questions of law are discussed and waxes when his or her personal knowledge becomes germane. 9

This Court need not decide whether Bradshaw’s absence was a constitutional violation, however, because it was a violation of Superior Court rules. Rule 43 of the Delaware Superior Court Rules of Criminal Procedure requires a defendant to be present “at the arraignment, at the time of the plea, at every stage of the trial including the impaneling of the jury and *135

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
806 A.2d 131, 2002 Del. LEXIS 394, 2002 WL 1316238, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bradshaw-v-state-del-2002.