State v. Russell

¶1 This case involves the question of whether reviewing jury questionnaires for hardship implicates the public trial right. On each of the first two days of jury selection in this case, the trial judge, the attorneys, and petitioner Frederick David Russell 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-Club1 analysis on the record before holding the work sessions.

¶2 Russell contends that the work sessions…