14.Defendant-Statement Admissibility Clarification and Non-Use Agreement
23 linesBOYD YOUNG: I am not saying you can't call somebody because you told me on Wednesday. Your Honor, I need to ask the Court if the rulings regarding the statements which were, I believe we were in Laurens and Your Honor made the rulings on the statements that the State intended to offer with regard to Denno and Mr. Jones Fifth Amendment rights, if those rulings are final or if we need to keep objecting whenever the State offers any other statements of Mr. Jones.
THE COURT: The ones that I have heard and ruled on thus far are final rulings. If they bring up another statement then we will address that. Y'all alert me if it is a new statement.
BOYD YOUNG: Yes, sir.
THE COURT: Okay.
BOYD YOUNG: Your Honor, it has come to my attention and I am not sure about this, I believe the State could probably help. But there is a final statement between Officer Creech, I believe it was at the Lexington County Detention center--
THE COURT: That they weren't going to use.
BOYD YOUNG: I believe that they weren't going to use.
THE COURT: It was kind of a friendly thing.
BOYD YOUNG: What do you mean, I did the right thing.
THE COURT: Y'all aren't going to use that, are you?
RICK HUBBARD: No, sir.
THE COURT: I thought that is what they said, they are staying away from it.
BOYD YOUNG: Okay.
RICK HUBBARD: For the record I believe that was on September the 11th of 2014.
THE COURT: Anything else. I have got one more thing, sort of logistics. I told the media and I told my security staff, they asked me about coming and going in and out of the courtroom. I believe the way I want to manage the courtroom is once the jury is in here with us everybody stays seated until we take a break. The audience will be required to do the same thing as the lawyers. So I don't want people coming and going and that is how I am going to direct the deputies to manage the courtroom so once you are in you can leave at the break. I don't want people coming and going, it is distracting and it is distracting jurors. So when the jury is in here we are in here. If the jury is not in here we can go. So that is kind of what I want to do. So the backdoor may be locked. So we are not going, I am not going to fuss at you if somebody is needed as a next witness and takes me a minute to get in here because logistically y'all understand 18 jurors out this door, through the glass doors, that is going to take a few minutes every time we take a break. I want the breaks to be kind of firm and regimented in time. I don't want the courtroom in and out while we are in here working.
RICK HUBBARD: Just one real quick thing. I know, for instance, they have a printer over there, if they need something ours is actually going to be right across the hall. So if there is a need like that, we understand movement is not good but considering where we are, we are kind of hidden from the jury on that side.
THE COURT: If we need something like that alert and I will allow that, the printer or something to be retrieved for a particular witness. But I don't want anybody else, I want the deputies to have clear direction, everybody is to be seated until we are done and break, not have some gray area in there. And we can manage ourselves as far as if we need something, something copied or something printed, we can do that. But I don't want the jury to be distracted, folks that have got no business getting up and down because they are just tired of listening. They signed into come in here they can stay in here.
RICK HUBBARD: I didn't know if I need to signal you, if I need to send somebody to grab something.
THE COURT: Just let me know as we go. One more thing I wanted to tell y'all. I don't remember what it is but it is something to do with that also. It is something along those lines but we can manage that. I want the courtroom to be relatively little movement by the audience when we have got the jury in here because it is going to be hard to manage. Oh, if we have a bench conference I am planning on doing this. I want it on the record, I am going to cut the microphones off and cut the white noise on, let the jury, I will tell them they can stand up and move around while we are up here talking. I would like to manage it here with the microphones off and white noise, I would like to try to do that. If that doesn't work and we have to send them out we can do that. We will see how it goes.
BOYD YOUNG: And I understand that and I don't have any objection to that process. It would be normal practice to take Mr. Jones with me, just as far as court security and everybody. I haven't discussed that with Mr. Jones or made up our decision about how he feels about us going up there and then coming back and telling him.
THE COURT: I tell you what I will do. I don't mind him coming up here as long as the security detail is comfortable with it. Also as long as we don't bring six or seven lawyers every time, how about two. And we will limit it to the two that are doing the presentation and he can come. We can manage that.
RICK HUBBARD: May I make another suggestion. Because in my mind I think it looks horrible for a Defendant walking up there to see a Judge in front of this jury. To me it is almost, I don't like what that is saying. How about this, if it is something where Mr. Jones feels likes he needs to be a party to the conversation that that is when they say, we just let the jury go out and we can handle it here. Otherwise that Your Honor has to be assured that when we are up there that he is okay with his attorneys being up there. Because I really, really don't want that jury seeing him getting up and walking up there and talking with all of us and with you. I think that looks horrible to me, it is sending a message that I can't control. It is almost testifying by action. And I just, I don't like that, I don't think it is proper. And so I think it is just so he can be a part of his defense, he thinks he needs to hear what is going on let us send the jury out. Otherwise he is giving Your Honor permission for his attorneys to come up and speak on his behalf which is what they get paid to do.
THE COURT: Let's do it this way. If an issue comes up and I want to talk to the lawyers and I want each lawyer up here, meaning one and one. Come up here and I want an idea of what we are going to put on the record or not and whether we need to manage it differently. But it will be on the record off the mike and with white noise to determine whether we are going to put on the record or not. Something along those lines.