Kareem Peterson v. Melvin Williams

CALABRESI, Circuit Judge:

The Sixth Amendment provides that “[i]n all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a ... public trial....” And the Supreme Court has noted that violations of this provision are not subject to harmless error analysis. Waller v. Georgia, 467 U.S. 39, 49 n. 9, 104 S.Ct. 2210, 2217 n. 9, 81 L.Ed.2d 31 (1984) (a requirement that prejudice be shown ‘“would in most cases deprive [the defendant] of the [public-trial] guarantee, for it would be difficult to envisage a case in which he would have evidence available of specific injury’”) (citation omitted).…