Taylor v. United States, 414 U.S. 17 (1973)

414 U.S.
17
94 S.Ct. 194
38 L.Ed.2d 174
Richard J. TAYLOR, Jr.

v.
UNITED STATES.
No. 726915.
Nov. 5, 1973.
PER CURIAM.
On the first day of his trial on four counts of selling cocaine in violation of 26
U.S.C. 4705(a) (1964 ed.), petitioner failed to return for the afternoon session.
He had been present at the expiration of the morning session when the court
announced that the lunch recess would last until 2 p.m., and he had been told by
his attorney to return to the courtroom at that time. The judge recessed the trial
until the following morning, but petitioner still did not appear. His wife testified
that she had left the courtroom the previous day with petitioner after the
morning session; that they had separated after sharing a taxicab to Roxbury;
that he had not appeared ill; and, finally, that she had not heard from him since.
The trial judge then denied a motion for mistrial by defense counsel, who
asserted that the jurors' minds would be tainted by petitioner's absence and that
continuation of the trial in his absence deprived him of his Sixth Amendment
right to confront witnesses against him. Relying upon Fed.Rules Crim.Proc.
43,1 which expressly provides that a defendant's voluntary absence 'shall not
prevent continuing the trial,' the court found that petitioner had absented
himself voluntarily from the proceedings.
Throughout the remainder of the trial, the court admonished the jury that no
inference of guilt could be drawn from petitioner's absence. Petitioner was
found guilty on all four counts. Following his subsequent arrest, he was
sentenced to the statutory five-year minimum. The Court of Appeals affirmed
the conviction, 478 F.2d 689 (CA1 1973), and we now grant the motion for
leave to proceed in forma pauperis and the petition for certiorari and affirmed
the judgment of the Court of Appeals.
There is no challenge to the trial court's conclusion that petitioner's absence

from the trial was voluntary, 2 and no claim that the continuation of the trial was
not authorized by Rule 43. Nor are we persuaded that Rule 43 is
unconstitutional or that petitioner was deprived of any constitutional rights in
the circumstances before us. Rule 43 has remained unchanged since the
adoption of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure in 1945; and with respect
to the consequences of the defendant's voluntary absence from trial, it reflects
the longstanding rule recognized by this Court in Diaz v. United States, 223
U.S. 442, 455, 32 S.Ct. 250, 254, 56 L.Ed. 500 (1912):
'(W)here the offense is not capital and the accused is not in custody, the
prevailing rule has been, that if, after the trial has begun in his presence, he
voluntarily absents himself, this does not nullify what has been done or prevent
the completion of the trial, but, on the contrary, operates as a waiver of his right
to be present and leaves the court free to proceed with the trial in like manner
and with like effect as if he were present.' (Citations omitted.)
Under this rule, the District Court and the Court of Appeals correctly rejected
petitioner's claims.
Petitioner, however, insists that his mere voluntary absence from his trial
cannot be construed as an effective waiver, that is, 'an intentional
relinquishment or abandonment of a known right or privilege,' Johnson v.
Zerbst, 304 U.S. 458, 464, 58 S.Ct. 1019, 1023, 82 L.Ed. 1461 (1938), unless it
is demonstrated that he knew or had been expressly warned by the trial court
not only that he had a right to be present but also that the trial would continue in
his absence and thereby effectively foreclose his right to testify and to confront
personally the witnesses against him.3
Like the Court of Appeals, we cannot accept this position. Petitioner had no
right to interrupt the trial by his voluntary absence, as he implicitly concedes by
urging only that he should have been warned that no such right existed and that
the trial would proceed in his absence. The right at issue is the right to be
present, and the question becomes whether that right was effectively waived by
his voluntary absence. Consistent with Rule 43 and Diaz, we conclude that it
was.
It is wholly incredible to suggest that petitioner, who was at liberty on bail, had
attended the opening session of his trial, and had a duty to be present at the
trial, see Stack v. Boyle, 342 U.S. 1, 45, 72 S.Ct. 1, 34, 96 L.Ed. 3 (1951),
entertained any doubts about his right to be present at every stage of his trial. It
seems equally incredible to us, as it did to the Court of Appeals, 'that a

defendant who flees from a courtroom in the midst of a trialwhere judge,
jury, witnesses and lawyers are present and ready to continuewould not know
that as a consequence the trial could continue in his absence.' 478 F.2d, at 691.
Here the Court of Appeals noted that when petitioner was questioned at
sentencing regarding his flight, he never contended that he was unaware that a
consequence of his flight would be a continuation of the trial without him.
Moreover, no issue of the voluntariness of his disappearance was ever raised.
As was recently noted, 'there can be no doubt whatever that the governmental
prerogative to proceed with a trial may not be defeated by conduct of the
accused that prevents the trial from going forward.' Illinois v. Allen, 397 U.S.
337, 349, 90 S.Ct. 1057, 1063, 25 L.Ed.2d 353 (1970) (Brennan, J.,
concurring). Under the circumstances present here, the Court of Appeals
properly applied Rule 43 and affirmed the judgment of conviction.
9
Affirmed.
Rule 43 provides, in pertinent part:

'The defendant shall be present at the arraignment, at every stage of the trial
including the impaneling of the jury and the return of the verdict, and at the
imposition of sentence, except as otherwise provided by these rules. In
prosecutions for offenses not punishable by death, the defendant's voluntary
absence after the trial has been commenced in his presence shall not prevent
continuing the trial to and including the return of the verdict.'
Following an independent review of the transcripts from the trial and

sentencing hearing, the Court of Appeals also concluded that petitioner knew
that he was entitled to be present in court during every stage of his trial and that
his absence was a product of his voluntary choice. 478 F.2d 689, 691 n. 4
(1973).
This was substantially the holding of United States v. McPherson, 137

U.S.App.D.C. 192, 195, 421 F.2d 1127, 1130 (1969), on which petitioner
relies. But the Court of Appeals in the case now before us disagreed with
McPherson, and, in our view, rightly so. McPherson itself appears to have
strayed from recent precedent in the District of Columbia Circuit, Cureton v.
United States, 130 U.S.App.D.C. 22, 396 F.2d 671 (1968), as well as from
older authority. See Falk v. United States, 15 App.D.C. 446, 454461 (1899).
In Cureton, supra, Judge Fahy stated the controlling rule:
'(I)f a defendant at liberty remains away during his trial the court may proceed
provided it is clearly established that his absence is voluntary. He must be
aware of the processes taking place, of his right and of his obligation to be
present, and he must have no sound reason for remaining away.' 130
U.S.App.D.C., at 27, 396 F.2d, at 676 (citation omitted).

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414 U.S.

Richard J. TAYLOR, Jr.

There is no challenge to the trial court's conclusion that petitioner's absence

seems equally incredible to us, as it did to the Court of Appeals, 'that a

Rule 43 provides, in pertinent part:

Following an independent review of the transcripts from the trial and

This was substantially the holding of United States v. McPherson, 137

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