United States v. Sundeep Dharni

738 F.3d 1186, 2014 WL 26245, 2014 U.S. App. LEXIS 80
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedJanuary 3, 2014
Docket11-16438
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 738 F.3d 1186 (United States v. Sundeep Dharni) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Sundeep Dharni, 738 F.3d 1186, 2014 WL 26245, 2014 U.S. App. LEXIS 80 (9th Cir. 2014).

Opinion

OPINION

WALLACE, Circuit Judge:

Sundeep Dharni filed a motion to vacate, set aside or correct his sentence pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2255 based on the alleged closure of the courtroom during voir dire of his criminal trial, and the ineffective assistance of both his trial counsel, by failing to object to the alleged closure, and his appellate counsel, by failing to challenge his conviction based on the alleged closure. The district court held that any closure was trivial and denied the motion. Dharni appeals from the denial of that motion. We have jurisdiction over his timely filed appeal under 28 U.S.C. §§ 2253, 2255,1291. We affirm.

I.

In early July 2007, Dharni was tried for violations of 18 U.S.C. §§ 844, 1341. During consideration of jury selection, the district judge stated he “anticipated some problems because of the 4th of July holiday and possible hardship excuses.” He therefore expanded the number of prospective jurors. On the morning of trial, the district court judge stated that when

the jury comes up, I’m going to ask all-family members to go out in the hall. We need every seat in the audience section of the courtroom as we called in extra jurors because of the vacation problem. So that during jury selection, all of the family and friends of the defendant and any other spectators that are out there will wait out in the hall during jury selection until seats open up.

Dharni’s lawyer did not object to the court’s statement. A few moments later, the judge asked “the family of the defen *1188 dant and other spectators [to] please leave the courtroom.” After the spectators had presumably left, the judge welcomed the jury and stated that he “called in extra jurors today for jury selection,” and that the courtroom did not “have much audience room.”

During jury selection, the judge excused five potential jurors based on peremptory challenges before taking a fifteen-minute recess. When jury selection reconvened, another nine potential jurors were excused because of peremptory or for-cause challenges. In total, fourteen potential jurors were excused before the jury and the two alternates were empanelled. At no point during jury selection did Dharni’s attorney object to any absence of Dharni’s family members or other spectators. The record does not indicate whether any family members or other spectators returned to the courtroom as jurors were excused and seats opened up.

The jury convicted Dharni. He appealed his conviction to this court, but did not challenge the judge’s request that family members and spectators leave the courtroom until seats became available. See United States v. Dharni, 324 Fed.Appx. 554 (9th Cir.2009). We affirmed his conviction. Id. at 556.

In 2010, Dharni filed the instant motion to set aside his conviction under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 before the district court. In the motion, he raised two claims for the first time: that the district court violated his Sixth Amendment right to a public trial by requesting that spectators leave the courtroom during voir dire, and that his trial and appellate counsel ineffectively assisted him by failing to object or appeal from the court’s request that family members and spectators leave the courtroom. 1

The district court denied Dharni’s motion. The court held that as of Dharni’s trial date, “it was an open question if the Sixth Amendment right to a public trial extended to jury selection and voir dire.” Regardless, the court determined that the request that spectators, including family members, leave the courtroom temporarily was at most a trivial closure that did not implicate the Sixth Amendment values behind the right to a public trial. Because any closure of the courtroom during jury selection was trivial, the court concluded, Dharni suffered no prejudice from his counsel’s failure to object or appeal, which doomed his ineffective assistance of counsel claim. Dharni appeals from the judgment denying his motion. We review Sixth Amendment and ineffective assistance of counsel claims de novo. United States v. Ivester, 316 F.3d 955, 958 (9th Cir.2003); United States v. Rodrigues, 347 F.3d 818, 823 (9th Cir.2003). We also review de novo the denial of a federal prisoner’s motion under 28 U.S.C. § 2255. See, e.g., United States v. Aguirre-Ganceda, 592 F.3d 1043, 1045 (9th Cir.2010).

II.

We first address Dharni’s substantive Sixth Amendment claim. The Sixth Amendment “directs, in relevant part, that ‘[i]n all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial----’” Presley v. Georgia, 558 U.S. 209, 212, 130 S.Ct. 721, 175 L.Ed.2d 675 (2010) (per curiam) (alterations in original), quoting U.S. Const, amend. VI. Contrary to the district court’s ruling, the public trial right extends to voir dire, and did so on the date of Dharni’s trial. Id. at 213, 130 S.Ct. 721 (observing that “the question then arises whether it is so well settled *1189 that the Sixth Amendment right extends to jury voir dire,” and stating that “[t]he point is well settled” under Supreme Court decisions from the 1980s).

In some circumstances, though, the exclusion of spectators from a trial proceeding does not implicate the constitutional right. United States v. Rivera, 682 F.3d 1223, 1229 (9th Cir.2012). “Trivial” exclusions do not infringe upon the values behind the right. Id., quoting Ivester, 316 F.3d at 960. Those values are: “ ‘(1) to ensure a fair trial, (2) to remind the prosecutor and judge of their responsibility to the accused and the importance of their functions, (3) to encourage witnesses to come forward[,] and (4) to discourage perjury.’” Ivester, 316 F.3d at 960, quoting Peterson v. Williams, 85 F.3d 39, 43 (2d Cir.1996); see also Rivera, 682 F.3d at 1229 (explaining that trivial closures do not implicate the values of “ensuring fair proceedings; reminding the prosecutor and judge of their grave responsibilities; discouraging perjury; and encouraging witnesses to come forward”).

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
738 F.3d 1186, 2014 WL 26245, 2014 U.S. App. LEXIS 80, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-sundeep-dharni-ca9-2014.