Hasty v. United States

669 A.2d 127, 1995 D.C. App. LEXIS 251, 1995 WL 744759
CourtDistrict of Columbia Court of Appeals
DecidedDecember 18, 1995
Docket87-CM-1230
StatusPublished
Cited by29 cases

This text of 669 A.2d 127 (Hasty v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District of Columbia Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hasty v. United States, 669 A.2d 127, 1995 D.C. App. LEXIS 251, 1995 WL 744759 (D.C. 1995).

Opinions

WAGNER, Chief Judge:

Appellant, Michael L. Hasty, was charged with one count of demonstrating in the United States Capitol Building (the Capitol) in violation of D.C.Code § 9-112(b)(7) (1989), and one count of unlawful entry of the Capitol in violation of D.C.Code § 22-3102 (1989). The charges arose out of a demonstration in the Rotunda of the Capitol. Following a jury trial, Hasty and a co-defendant, Donald Rem-mey, were found guilty on each count. On appeal, Hasty’s principal argument is that the trial court erred in failing to instruct the jury on the “tourist standard,” i.e., that in order to find him guilty under D.C.Code § 9-112(b)(7), the government had the burden of proving that his conduct was more disruptive or more substantial than that normally engaged in by tourists.1 We conclude that the narrow construction accorded by this court to D.C.Code § 9-112(b)(7), in order to avoid constitutional overbreadth, requires that where, as here, - provisions of the statute would be unconstitutional absent such an interpretation, the court must assure that a defendant’s conviction is based upon the statute as construed. On the particular facts of this case, the jury instruction given by the trial court was not adequate to meet this requirement.

I.

Hasty’s convictions arose out of a demonstration in the Rotunda of the Capitol Building on April 15, 1987 which was organized to protest then-President Reagan’s policies in Central America. The demonstration was authorized to take place on the east front center steps of the Capitol at noontime. At approximately 1:26 p.m., Hasty and fourteen other demonstrators entered the Capitol and formed a circle in the center of the Rotunda where they began to pray aloud. Lieutenant Robert V. Howse, a member of the U.S. Capitol police force, approached the group and asked them to move on, but they continued praying. Using a bullhorn, Lt. Howse warned the group to cease and desist and to leave the Rotunda. The group ignored the officer, kneeled, and continued with their prayers. At approximately 1:31 p.m., Officer Michael Dodgson and Officer Vodkoe went to each member of the group and informed him or her individually that if they failed to leave the Rotunda immediately, they would be placed under arrest. Every one in the group refused to leave, and Hasty and the others were placed under arrest.

Lieutenant Howse testified that the group’s position in the center of the Rotunda blocked passage through the area and that the officers asked the group to move on in order to keep the passageway clear. He further testified that the officers asked the group to cease and desist because their activities constituted a demonstration, which was unlawful in the Rotunda. During the entire incident, which lasted about five minutes, three to four hundred tourists were inside the Rotunda. Some of them began singing along with Hasty and his companions. However, when asked to stop singing, these tourists complied, and the police did not arrest them.

Hasty testified that he went to the center of the Rotunda to meet the others and to pray as a “sign of their faith.” He testified that the group formed a circle, recited prayers, read, and knelt in silent prayer, and some of them began singing. He admitted hearing the officer ordering the group to cease and desist over the bullhorn, but he [130]*130chose to ignore the order because he was deeply in prayer. He also testified that he refused to leave when the police asked him to because he “had every right to be there.”

At the conclusion of the government’s case, Hasty made a motion for a judgment of acquittal on the ground that the government had failed to prove that his conduct was “a substantial disruption of the usual business of the rotunda or congressional business.” The trial court denied the motion. The court also declined to give the jury an instruction explaining the “tourist standard” as a part of the definition of demonstrating. Instead, the court provided the following definition:

“A demonstration” ... is a public showing or display by a group of persons assembled together of their feelings, such as sympathy or antagonism, toward a cause or action of public interest, which showing or display, by its very nature, necessarily intrudes upon the senses of those within earshot or eyesight.

II.

Hasty argues that the trial court erred in refusing to include the “tourist standard” in the jury instruction defining “demonstrating.” He contends that: (1) the “tourist standard” is an essential element of § 9-112(b)(7); and (2) under the tourist standard, he could not be found guilty unless his conduct was substantially more disruptive than that normally engaged in by a tourist in the Rotunda of the Capitol. Conviction for conduct which does not satisfy these requirements, Hasty contends, violates his First Amendment rights. Therefore, he contends that his convictions must be reversed because the jury had no opportunity to consider his conduct under the statute as restricted by the tourist standard.

A. Statutory Construction of D.C.Code § 9 — 112(b)(7)

Hasty was convicted under D.C.Code § 9-112(b)(7), which provides:

It shall be unlawful for any person or group of persons willfully and knowingly ... [t]o parade, demonstrate, or picket within any of the Capitol Buildings.

We have previously recognized that the Rotunda of the Capitol is a “ ‘unique situs for demonstration activity’ and is a place traditionally open to the public ... to which access cannot be denied broadly or absolutely.” Wheelock v. United States, 552 A.2d 503, 506 (D.C.1988) (quoting Kroll v. United States Capitol Police, 590 F.Supp. 1282, 1289-90 (D.D.C.1983)); see also Berg v. United States, 631 A.2d 394, 397-98 (D.C.1993); Abney v. United States, 616 A.2d 856, 859 n. 8 (D.C.1992). Content neutral restrictions on time, place, and manner of expression in a public forum are permissible. Berg, 631 A.2d at 399. However, statutes which curtail expressive conduct in such forums must be “ ‘narrowly tailored to serve a significant governmental interest, and leave open ample alternative channels of communication.’ ” Id. at 398 (quoting United States v. Wall, 521 A.2d 1140, 1143 (D.C.1987)); Wheelock, 552 A.2d at 506.

In order to save D.C.Code § 9-112(b)(7) from being unconstitutionally over-broad and to avoid infringing on protected expression, this court has construed the statute to prohibit only certain behavior falling under the parameters of what has become known as the “tourist standard.” See Berg, supra,

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Bluebook (online)
669 A.2d 127, 1995 D.C. App. LEXIS 251, 1995 WL 744759, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hasty-v-united-states-dc-1995.