public trial

In view of this nation's historic distrust of secret proceedings, their inherent dangers to freedom, and the universal requirement of our federal and state governments that criminal trials be public, the Fourteenth Amendment's guarantee that no one shall be deprived of his liberty without due process of law means at least that an accused cannot be thus sentenced to prison.

A trial which, under reasonable limitations, the public are freely admitted to attend. The attendance may be limited to the reasonable seating capacity of the courtroom (92 Mo. 542), and persons whose attendance as a class would probably tend to disorder may be excluded (Fed. Gas. No. 14680), but the exclusion of all persons except officers of the court is a violation of the right to a public trial (103 Gal. 242), as is an order to an officer to admit only "respectable persons," where "The requirement of a public trial is for the benefit of the accused, that the public may see he is fairly dealt with, and not unjustly condemned, and that the presence of interested spectators may keep his triers keenly alive to a sense of their responsibility and to the importance of their functions; and the requirement is fairly observed if, without partiality or favoritism, a reasonable proportion of the public is suffered to attend, notwithstanding that those persons whose presence could be of no service to the accused, and who would only be drawn thither by a prurient curiosity, are excluded altogether." Gooley, Const. Lim. *312.