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- A typical motion at trial is for all witnesses to be sequestered, that is, to be kept out of the courtroom while all other evidence is presented. The theory of sequestration is simple: By isolating the witnesses, no witness will hear the questions posed and answers given by others, or attempt to conform to the others' testimony.
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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.
Sequestration means that witnesses are kept out of the courtroom when they are not testifying, preventing them from hearing the testimony of other witnesses. Purpose of Sequestration: The main goal is to prevent witnesses from being influenced by the testimony of others and to discourage collusion. It helps to ensure that each witness’s ...
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.”
Sequestration is intended to assure that the witnesses will testify based on their own knowledge of the facts without being influenced by testimony of prior witnesses. Witness sequestration also seeks to strengthen the role of cross-examination in developing facts.
- 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...
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.
Aug 7, 2023 · A typical motion at trial is for all witnesses to be sequestered, that is, to be kept out of the courtroom while all other evidence is presented. The theory of sequestration is simple: By isolating the witnesses, no witness will hear the questions posed and answers given by others, or attempt to conform to the others' testimony.
