Facts: Petitioner Dean Lormor was convicted of unlawful possession of a controlled substance in the Superior Court for Thurston County after a trial in which his daughter, who is confined to a wheelchair and requires a ventilator to breathe, was excluded from the courtroom on grounds that her presence would be potentially distracting to the jury. Lormor subsequently appealed his conviction, asserting that the exclusion of his daughter from the courtroom during his trial constituted a closure that violated both the 6th Amendment to the United States Constitution’s guarantee of a public trial and Article I §10 of the Washington State Constitution’s guarantee of the open administration of justice. The Washington Court of Appeals affirmed Lormor’s conviction, holding that although the exclusion of Lormor’s daughter from the courtroom during Lormor’s trial constituted a closure, it was too trivial to violate Lormor’s right to a public trial. Lormor appealed this decision to the Supreme Court of Washington.
Question(s): Did the exclusion of Lormor’s daughter from the courtroom during Lormor’s trial constitute a closure?
If so, did the closure violate Lormor’s right to a public trial?
Conclusion: Justice Charles W. Johnson’s opinion for a unanimous Court affirmed the Washington Court of Appeals on alternate grounds, concluding that the exclusion of Lormor’s daughter from the courtroom during Lormor’s trial was not a closure insofar as a closure occurs only when a courtroom is completely and purposefully closed to spectators and was instead a matter of courtroom operations and an exercise of the trial court judge’s broad power under Washington Revised Code §2.28.010 to preserve and enforce order in the courtroom and to provide for the orderly conduct of its proceedings, which includes the power to remove distracting spectators.
Docket No. 84319-8 (from Court of Appeals Division II Case No. 38549-0)
Petitioner: Dean Lormor
(Counsel: Thomas Edward Doyle)
Respondent: State of Washington
(Counsel: Carol La Verne)
Briefs:
Argument: Tuesday, May 3, 2011 10:00am
[Source: TVW, http://tvw.org]
Audio: Washington Supreme Court
Decided: Thursday, July 21st, 2011
Prevailing Party: State of Washington (Respondent)
Vote: 9-0
Citation: Pending
Court: Madsen2 Court (2011-)
Madsen
Johnson
(Majority)
Alexander
Chambers
Owens
Fairhurst
Johnson
Stephens
Wiggins
Note: We post only slip opinion(s) as published at the time of the decision. Please consult Washington Reports printed volumes for the opinion(s) in their final form. Each opinion should appear next to the Justice who authored it.