Hicks v. United States, 6332.
| Decision Date | 10 November 1972 |
| Docket Number | No. 6332.,6332. |
| Citation | 296 A.2d 615 |
| Parties | Alphonso Leonard HICKS, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES, Appellee. |
| Court | D.C. Court of Appeals |
George M. Alexis, Public Defender Service, Washington, D. C., appointed by this court, for appellant.
Jason D. Kogan, Asst. U. S. Atty., with whom Harold H. Titus, Jr., U. S. Atty., John A. Terry and Peter C. Schaumber, Asst. U. S. Attys., were on the brief, for appellee.
Before KELLY, KERN and PAIR, Associate Judges.
In this appeal from a conviction of destroying property in violation of D.C.Code 1967, § 22-403, the sole claim of error is that the trial court failed to determine whether appellant knowingly and voluntarily waived his constitutional right to trial by jury.
D.C.Code 1967, § 16-705(a) (Supp. V, 1972), provides that:
In a criminal case tried in the Superior Court in which, according to the Constitution of the United States, the defendant is entitled to a jury trial, the trial shall be by jury, unless the defendant in open court expressly waives trial by jury and requests trial by the court, and the court and the prosecuting officer consent thereto. In the case of a trial without a jury, the trial shall be by a single judge, whose verdict shall have the same force and effect as that of a jury.1
At arraignment appellant had demanded a trial by jury; however, at trial the following colloquy occurred:
MR. SCHAEFFER [defense counsel]:
If it please the Court, we demanded a jury trial in this case, and I have discussed this case fully with this defendant and explained it to him, and he understands it, and he now wants to take a trial by the Court. Am I right?
MR. SCHAUMBER [prosecutor]: Yes, Your Honor.
THE COURT: All right. [Tr. at 3.]
Additionally, appellant executed a written waiver of jury trial, signed also by counsel, consented to by an Assistant United States Attorney, and approved by the trial judge. Appellant nevertheless contends that the waiver is defective because no judicial inquiry was made of him personally, in sufficient detail, to determine whether it was voluntary.
In waiving trial by jury, the procedure contemplated by the D.C.Code provision and by the Superior Court Criminal Rule, and that enunciated by this court, is an "on-the-record inquiry of a defendant himself by the trial judge in open court", Jackson v. United States, D.C.App., 262 A.2d 106, 109 (1970). And while we have had occasion, in Payne v. United States, D.C.App., 292 A.2d 800 (1972), to emphasize the regrettable waste of judicial resources resulting from the failure to follow the procedure specified in the Jackson case, we have nonetheless upheld a procedure somewhat less ideal than that suggested in Jackson where it is clear on the record that the waiver was a knowledgeable one. Gregory v. United States, D.C.App., 271 A.2d 791 (1970). We conclude that such is the...
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Fortune v. United States, 10–CF–316.
...when presented with a request for waiver of jury trial. See Hawkins v. United States, 385 A.2d 744, 746–47 (D.C.1978); Hicks v. United States, 296 A.2d 615, 617 (D.C.1972); Banks v. United States, 262 A.2d 110, 111 (D.C.1970); (Frederick)Jackson v. United States, 262 A.2d 106, 108–09 (D.C.1......
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Jackson v. United States
...when presented with a request for waiver of jury trial. Hawkins v. United States, 385 A.2d 744, 746-47 (D.C.1978); Hicks v. United States, 296 A.2d 615, 617 (D.C.1972); Banks v. United States, 262 A.2d 110, 111 (D.C. 1970); Jackson, 262 A.2d at 108-09; see Payne v. United States, 292 A.2d 8......
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LOPEZ v. U.S.
...empty records on appeal. Id. at n. 4 (quoting [Frederick] Jackson, supra, 262 A.2d at 108-09). Shortly after Payne came Hicks v. United States, 296 A.2d 615 (D.C. 1972). Hicks presented a scenario similar in some respects to the present case. The defendant executed a written waiver of his r......
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Hawkins v. United States
...242, 281 F.2d 605 (1960), and Eliachar v. United States, D.C.App., 229 A.2d 451 (1967), and on a post-Jackson case, Hicks v. United States, D.C.App., 296 A.2d 615 (1972). It is clear that a defendant may relinquish his right to a jury trial as long as the waiver is express and voluntary. Pa......