Washington v. Russell (Majority and Concurrence)
Annotate this CasePetitioner Frederick Russell was arrested in 2001 for drinking and driving, which lead to a crash, killing two passengers and seriously injuring three others. He posted bail, but failed to appear at a pretrial hearing. He was eventually captured in Ireland and extradited back to the United States to stand trial. On each of the first two days of jury selection in this case, the trial judge, the attorneys, and petitioner held work sessions to review juror questionnaires and to separate the hardship juror requests from the others. These work sessions occurred in the jury room, rather than in the courtroom, and the trial court did not conduct a "Bone-Club" analysis on the record before holding the work sessions. The issue this case presented for the Washington Supreme Court's review involved the question of whether reviewing jury questionnaires for hardship implicated the public trial right. Russell argued that the work sessions violated the public trial right guaranteed by article I, sections 10 and 22 of the state constitution and that his convictions should have therefore been reversed. The Court of Appeals rejected that contention, as did the Supreme Court.
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