United States Ninth Circuit

Conviction and sentence for attempted bank robbery is affirmed, where: 1) defendant has a right to be personally present during voir dire of prospective jurors, and the district court violated Fed. R. Crim. P. 43 when it excluded defendant from a side bar with Juror H, but the error was harmless because the evidence of guilt was overwhelming; 2) the district court did not violate Rule 43 when it excluded the defendant from seventeen other side bar exchanges, as those exchanges were "conferences or hearings on a question of law" from which the defendant may be excluded at the district court's discretion; and 3) the fairness of the proceedings was not frustrated by the exclusion of the defendant from the side bars at-issue, and as such, the exclusions did not violate defendant's constitutional right to be present at trial.

Appellate Information

• Decided 09/04/2014
• Published 09/04/2014

Judges

• Bybee

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel