Edwards v. Logan

• Decision Date: 28 January 1999
• Docket Number: Civil Action No. 97-0066-R.
• Citation: 38 F.Supp.2d 463
• Parties: Michael S. EDWARDS, Plaintiff, v. Keen Mountain Correctional Officer LOGAN, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Western District of Virginia

38 F.Supp.2d 463

Michael S. EDWARDS, Plaintiff, v. Keen Mountain Correctional Officer LOGAN, et al., Defendants.

Civil Action No. 97-0066-R.

United States District Court, W.D. Virginia, Roanoke Division.

January 28, 1999.

Michael S. Edwards, Las Cruces, NM, pro se.

Donald Wise Huffman, Huffman & Haig, P.C., Roanoke, VA, Martha Murphey Parrish, Office of Atty. Gen., Richmond, VA, Anisa P. Kelley, Fiscella, Kelley & Mooney, Richmond, VA, for defendants.

OPINION AND ORDER

JONES, District Judge.

The question before the court is whether a jury trial in a suit brought by a state prisoner under 42 U.S.C.A. § 1983 should be conducted through interactive video conferencing by which the plaintiff would remain confined in New Mexico while simultaneously participating in the trial held in this district. For security and expense reasons, I accept the state's request to hold the trial through video conferencing and direct the defendants to provide the necessary logistical assistance to set up the trial.

I. Background.

Michael S. Edwards, a state prisoner, filed suit against certain state prison officials and officers employed at the Keen Mountain Correctional Center, located in Buchanan County, Virginia, where Edwards was confined. In the suit, filed pursuant to 42 U.S.C.A. § 1983 (West 1994 & Supp.1998), he seeks money damages and has demanded a jury trial. On July 7, 1998, this court dismissed certain of Edwards' claims and a number of the defendants, but retained for trial an excessive force claim filed against correctional officers Buchanan, Honaker, and Turner, and former officer Hibbits. In the meantime, Edwards had been transferred from Virginia to New Mexico to serve the remainder of his sentence, pursuant to an agreement between the states.¹

I thereafter directed the parties to file statements of their positions as to the plaintiff's attendance at trial in light of the Fourth Circuit's decision in Muhammad v. Warden, Baltimore City Jail, 849 F.2d 107, 111-12 (4th Cir.1988) (holding that a plaintiff inmate in a section 1983 action had no absolute right to be present at his jury trial). Defendants Buchanan, Turner, and Honaker responded by moving that the costs of transportation be borne by the plaintiff, submitting affidavits estimating that the cost of transporting Edwards from New Mexico to Virginia for trial, including appropriate security, would be $8,652, and recommending that the court consider conducting the trial through video conferencing. Edwards responded that he had no funds to pay for such transportation and requested that the state be directed to produce him at its expense. Following receipt of the responses, I directed the defendants to further explore the possible use of interactive video.

Defendants Buchanan, Turner, and Honaker submitted a memorandum in support of conducting the trial through interactive video on November 5, 1998. I allowed Edwards and defendant Hibbits to respond to this proposal by November 29, 1998. Hibbits responded with his concurrence to his co-defendants' proposal on November 12, 1998. To date, Edwards has not responded.

Accordingly, the issue is ripe for decision.

II. Analysis.

Throughout the country, courts are beginning to use video conferencing to conduct judicial business. A recent news article reported the increased use of video conferencing in the federal courts of appeal, district courts, and bankruptcy courts. Video Conferencing Links Federal Courts and Public, The Third Branch (Admin.Office, U.S.Courts, Wash., D.C.) June 1998, at 6-7. A subsequent article recounted the support video conferencing has received from judges and attorneys who note that it not only saves time and money, but also enhances security by reducing the need to move prisoner participants for hearings. Courtroom Technology Draws Positive Response, The Third Branch, supra, August 1998, at 9.

While video conferencing has promise, its use in the federal courts has been limited and there are few established boundaries on when video conferencing can be employed as an alternative to physical presence in the courtroom. The federal rules allow the use of video conferencing or comparable technology to present witness testimony, but do not expressly permit or restrict a court's ability to conduct an entire civil trial through video conferencing. See Fed.R.Civ.P. 43(a) ("The court may, for good cause shown in compelling circumstances and upon appropriate safeguards, permit presentation of testimony in open court by contemporaneous transmission from a different location.").

In criminal cases, video conferencing technology has been upheld as an alternative means of taking witness testimony. See Maryland v. Craig, 497 U.S. 836, 110 S.Ct. 3157, 111 L.Ed.2d 666 (1990) (holding that closed circuit television constitutionally permitted for taking testimony of a child witness); United States v. McDougal, 934 F.Supp. 296 (E.D.Ark.1996) (holding that exceptional circumstances justified the taking of the President's testimony through the use of a deposition by video conferencing). The Ninth Circuit held, however, that an arraignment may not be held through interactive video because the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure require the defendant's actual presence. See Valenzuela-Gonzalez v. United States Dist. Court, 915 F.2d 1276, 1280 (9th Cir.1990). In contrast, one district court found that a sentencing hearing might be conducted through video conferencing because the technology enabled the defendant to be "present" at the hearing although he was not physically in the courtroom. See United States v. Edmondson, 10 F.Supp.2d 651, 653 (E.D.Tex.1998).²

A significant case examining the use of video conferencing in a civil matter is United States v. Baker, 45 F.3d 837 (4th Cir.1995). In that case, the Fourth Circuit upheld a decision to conduct a mental competency hearing through video conferencing as part of a pilot program sponsored by the Judicial Conference of the United States. Central to this conclusion was the determination that the commitment hearing was civil in nature and the Sixth Amendment right to confrontation did not apply. Although due process guaranteed certain protections to civil commitment respondents, the Fourth Circuit found that the use of video conferencing did not violate the defendant's procedural due process rights. Id. at 843-44. The court also noted that video conferencing did not "preclude the respondent from confronting and conducting relevant cross-examination of the witnesses ... [and allowed] for the respondent's `presence' at least in some sense, at the commitment hearing." Id.

The use of video conferencing in judicial proceedings was further enhanced with the enactment of the Prison Litigation Reform Act of 1996. Included in this legislation was a provision requiring courts to make greater use of video conferencing technology in adjudicating prisoner litigation. This statute specifically provides:

To the extent practicable, in any action brought with respect to prison conditions in Federal court pursuant to section 1983 of this title, or any other Federal law, by a prisoner confined in any jail, prison, or other correctional facility, pretrial proceedings in which the prisoner's participation is required or permitted shall be conducted by telephone, video conference, or other telecommunications technology without removing the prisoner from the facility in which the prisoner is confined.

42 U.S.C.A. § 1997e(f)(1) (Supp.1998).

Although this provision only requires video conferencing in pretrial prisoner litigation proceedings, there is no reason to believe Congress intended to prohibit the use of video conferencing to conduct the trial of a prisoner's suit. The clear intent of this legislation was to reduce the cost and administrative burdens associated with prisoner litigation.³ As part of this overall effort, video conferencing was required, to the extent practicable, for all pretrial prisoner litigation proceedings. A reasonable conclusion one can draw from this statute is that Congress sought to encourage the use of video conferencing and did not seek to restrict the universe in which this technology may be employed.

The above cases and the enactment of the Prisoner Litigation Reform Act are illustrative of the growing acceptance of video conferencing as an alternative in judicial proceedings, and they provide...