United States of America Ex Rel. Rico Latimore and Arthur Vesey v. Allyn R. Sielaff, Etc.

CASTLE, Senior Circuit Judge.

Petitioners were among four defendants convicted of rape in a joint trial before a jury in the Circuit Court of Saline County, Illinois. They seek a writ of habeas corpus on two grounds. First, they assert that their right to a public trial was denied by the exclusion of spectators during the testimony of the alleged victim. Second, they assert that the trial judge coerced the jury to return a verdict by failing to provide sleeping facilities at the jurors’ request.1 The district court denied the petition. We affirm.

I

We turn first to the question of whether…