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- To avoid having a witness color his testimony by hearing the testimony of other witnesses, any party may invoke the rule on sequestration (exclusion) of lay witnesses or experts. By not allowing a witness, lay or expert, to hear other witnesses before being called, the chances of fabrication and collusion are reduced.
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Mar 20, 2023 · Sequestering a Witness: What Is It and Why Does it Happen? When a witness is “sequestered” it just means that they’ve been excluded from the courtroom. Sequestering or excluding witnesses is normally intended to prevent them from tailoring their testimony to what other witnesses have said.
The sequestration of expert witnesses falls under California’s Rules of Evidence, § 777. CAL. EVID. CODE § 777 (West 2017). This rule allows the court to exclude any witness from the courtroom so as to not hear another witness’s testimony unless an exception applies to a witness.
- I. INTRODUCTION
- Stephen E. Smith
- THE POTENTIAL CONFLICT BETWEEN THE RULE AND THE RIGHT TO A PUBLIC TRIAL
- V. THE RULE AND THE RIGHT TO A PUBLIC TRIAL CAN COEXIST
- CONCLUSION
The exclusion of witnesses from courtrooms before their testimony is standard practice, in compliance with federal and state rules of evidence.1 But the exclusion of individuals from a courtroom can violate defendant’s Sixth Amendment right to a public trial.2 Criminal Associate Clinical Professor, Santa Clara University School of Law. This work wa...
Santa Clara University School of Law, sesmith@scu.edu Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.law.scu.edu/facpubs
The Rule’s regime of mandatory witness exclusion, reviewable only for abuse of discretion, is different in kind from – and at odds with – the scrutiny courts apply to the exclusion of individuals under the partial closure doctrine. Partial closures – the exclusion of individuals from the courtroom – are typically reviewed under the modified Waller ...
Standard implementation of the Rule will not result in Sixth Amendment violations. Historical understandings of the Sixth Amendment’s public trial right would have contemplated longstanding witness sequestration rules. Moreover, witness sequestration ordinarily causes no meaningful prejudice to the amendment’s purposes.
Given the overwhelming historical evidence of the common implementation of witness sequestration and the daily use of the procedure in courtrooms around the country, it can only be seen as a standard, ubiquitous tool of courtroom management. The concept of a public trial contemplates and incorporates the principle of witness exclusion. Moreover, wi...
DETAINING WITNESSES. For various reasons, most people who witness crimes are willing to cooperate with the police. The victim may have been a friend or relative, they may feel morally outraged at what the perpetrator did, or they may just have a strong sense of civic responsibility.
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The rule on sequestration (exclusion) of witnesses is designed to avoid fabrication and collusion and has traditional roots in the Old Testament. Special rules apply regarding expert witnesses and “support persons.”
Feb 23, 2023 · So, why are witnesses allowed in the courtroom before they testify? The reason is, quite simply, the rule of sequestration is not in effect. The federal rules of evidence require the sequestration of witnesses upon request.
Dec 1, 2023 · Sequestering witnesses is designed to serve two purposes: (i) to prevent a later witness from tailoring his or her testimony to that of a prior witness; and (ii) to assist the finder of fact in detecting unreliable testimony.
