Reagan

The plaintiff in error was convicted in the United States District Court for the Fourth District of the Territory of Alaska under an indictment which charged him with the crime of rape upon the body of one Violet Myers, a female person under the age of 16 years.

*39 The assignment of error principally relied upon is that the court, at the beginning of the trial, directed that the spectators should leave the courtroom; whereupon the bailiffs cleared the courtroom of spectators, and counsel for the plaintiff in error noted an exception to the court’s order. The court then said: “Your exception is granted. I made that order for the reasons, first, that I believe many are here out of morbid curiosity; second, I feel that the jurors in the box can listen to the testimony better if not bothered by people in the courtroom; and, in the third place, I am not feeling good myself this morning, and I can listen to the testimony of the witnesses and objections of counsel better than if I am bothered with noise in the courtroom. Counsel: I only want to object upon the ground that the defendant is entitled to a public trial. Court: He is getting a public trial exfcept for those reasons. The…