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In absentia is Latin for "in the absence." In legal use it usually pertains to a defendant's right to be present in court proceedings. Image File history File links Merge-arrows. ... In legal parlance, a trial is an event in which parties to a dispute present information (in the form of evidence) in a formal setting, usually a court, before a judge, jury, or other designated finder of fact, in order to achieve a resolution to their dispute. ... Image File history File links Gnome-globe. ... For other uses, see Latins and Latin (disambiguation). ...

In absentia under United States law

For more than 100 years, courts in the United States have held that, according to the United States Constitution, a criminal defendant has the right to appear in person at their trial, as a matter of due process under the Fifth, Sixth, and Fourteenth Amendments. In United States law, adopted from English Law, due process (more fully due process of law) is the principle that the government must respect all of a persons legal rights instead of just some or most of those legal rights when the government deprives a person of life, liberty... Amendment V (the Fifth Amendment) of the United States Constitution, which is part of the Bill of Rights, is related to legal procedure. ... Amendment VI (the Sixth Amendment) of the United States Constitution codifies rights related to criminal prosecutions in federal courts. ... Amendment XIV in the National Archives The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution (Amendment XIV) is one of the post-Civil War amendments (known as the Reconstruction Amendments), first intended to secure rights for former slaves. ...

In 1884, the United States Supreme Court held that The Supreme Court Building, Washington, D.C. The Supreme Court Building, Washington, D.C., (large image) The Supreme Court of the United States, located in Washington, D.C., is the highest court (see supreme court) in the United States; that is, it has ultimate judicial authority within the United States...

the legislature has deemed it essential to the protection of one whose life or liberty is involved in a prosecution for felony, that he shall be personally present at the trial, that is, at every stage of the trial when his substantial rights may be affected by the proceedings against him. If he be deprived of his life or liberty without being so present, such deprivation would be without that due process of law required by the Constitution. Hopt v. Utah 110 US 574, 28 L Ed 262, 4 S Ct 202 (1884).

A similar holding was announced by the Arizona Supreme Court in 2004 (based on Arizona Rules of Criminal Procedure):

A voluntary waiver of the right to be present requires true freedom of choice. A trial court may infer that a defendant's absence from trial is voluntary and constitutes a waiver if a defendant had personal knowledge of the time of the proceeding, the right to be present, and had received a warning that the proceeding would take place in their absence if they failed to appear. The courts indulge every reasonable presumption against the waiver of fundamental constitutional rights. State v. Whitley, 85 P.3d 116 (2004)

Although United States Congress codified this right by approving Rule 43 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure in 1946 and amended the Rule in 1973, the right is not absolute. Type Bicameral Houses Senate House of Representatives President of the Senate President pro tempore Dick Cheney, (R) since January 20, 2001 Robert C. Byrd, (D) since January 4, 2007 Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, (D) since January 4, 2007 Members 535 plus 4 Delegates and 1 Resident Commissioner Political...

Rule 43 provides that a defendant shall be present

• at the arraignment,
• at the time of the plea,
• at every stage of the trial including the impaneling of the jury and the return of the verdict and
• at the imposition of sentence.

However, the following exceptions are included in the Rule:

• the defendant waives his right to be present if he voluntarily leaves the trial after it has commenced,
• if he persists in disruptive conduct after being warned that such conduct will cause him to be removed from the courtroom,
• a corporation need not be present, but may be represented by counsel,
• in prosecutions for misdemeanors, the court may permit arraignment, plea, trial, and imposition of sentence in the defendant's absence with his written consent, and
• the defendant need not be present at a conference or argument upon a question of law or at a reduction of sentence under Rule 35 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure.

In 1993, the United States Supreme Court revisited Rule 43 in the case of Crosby v. United States, 506 U.S. 255. In an opinion by Justice Harry Blackmun, expressing the unanimous view of the court, it was held that Rule 43 does not permit the trial in absentia of a defendant who is absent at the beginning of trial. Justice Harry Blackmun Harry Andrew Blackmun (November 12, 1908 – March 4, 1999) was an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1970 to 1994. ...

This case requires us to decide whether Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 43 permits the trial in absentia of a defendant who absconds prior to trial and is absent at its beginning. We hold that it does not. ...The Rule declares explicitly: "The defendant shall be present . . . at every stage of the trial . . . except as otherwise provided by this rule" (emphasis added). The list of situations in which the trial may proceed without the defendant is marked as exclusive not by the "expression of one" circumstance, but rather by the express use of a limiting phrase. In that respect the language and structure of the Rule could not be more clear."

The Crosby court, however, reiterated an 80-year-old precedent that

Where the offense is not capital and the accused is not in custody, . . . if, after the trial has begun in his presence, he voluntarily absents himself, this does not nullify what has been done or prevent the completion of the trial, but, on the contrary, operates as a waiver of his right to be present and leaves the court free to proceed with the trial in like manner and with like effect as if he were present. Diaz v. United States, 223 U.S. at 455 (emphasis added).

Some state laws provide for automatic retrial of fugitives who are arrested after being convicted in absentia.

Examples

Examples of people convicted in absentia include:

• Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, sentenced to death in absentia in Jordan
• Cesare Battisti, former member of an Italian militant group
• Krim Belkacem, Algerian Berber fighter and politician
• Martin Bormann, Nazi secretary of state, sentenced to death at the Nuremberg war crimes trials.
• Ahmed Chalabi, convicted in Jordan for bank fraud
• Ira Einhorn, who challenged his conviction in absentia in Pennsylvania
• Jamal Jafaar Mohammed, sentenced to death by Kuwaiti court for the 1983 bombings of the U.S. and French embassies. Now he is a member of Iraq's parliament as a member of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's Dawa Party.
• Andrew Luster, convicted of date rape after fleeing mid-trial
• Filiberto Ojeda Ríos, convicted in the US after fleeing
• Bernardo Provenzano, Sicilian Mafia boss convicted of numerous murders during his 42-years as a fugitive
• Sade (singer), sentenced in absentia to jailtime in Jamaica for reckless driving
• Michael Townley, DINA agent, has been convicted in 1993 by an Italian court in carrying out the 1975 Rome murder attempt on Bernardo Leighton.^[1]
• Shalom Weiss, sentenced to the longest federal prison term in United States history for fraud, money laundering and other crimes

[1] [2] Wikinews has related news: Abu Musab al-Zarqawi killed in airstrike Abu Musab al-Zarqawi (Arabic: , , Abu Musab from Zarqa)) (October 20, 1966 – June 7, 2006), born as Ahmad Fadeel al-Nazal al-Khalayleh (Arabic: , )was a Jordanian who ran a militant training camp in Afghanistan. ... Born in 1954, Cesare Battisti is a author of thrillers and a former member of the Armed Proletarians for Communism (PAC), a leftist group which supported armed struggle during Italys anni di piombo. He joined the organisation in 1976 and is alleged to have committed several murders in Italy... Krim Belkacem Krim Belkacem (September 14, 1922 - October 18, 1970) was an Algerian revolutionary fighter and politician. ... The Berbers (also called Imazighen, free men, singular Amazigh) are an ethnic group indigenous to Northwest Africa, speaking the Berber languages of the Afroasiatic family. ... Martin Bormann Martin Bormann (June 17, 1900 - c. ... Ahmed Abdel Hadi Chalabi1 (Arabic: أحمد الجلبي Ahmad al-Jalabī) (born October 30, 1944) was interim oil minister in Iraq[1] in April-May 2005 and December-January 2006 and deputy prime minister from May 2005 until May 2006. ... Ira Samuel Einhorn, a. ... This article is about the U.S. State. ... Nouri Kamel Mohammed Hassan al-Maliki (Arabic: نوري كامل المالكي, transliterated Nūrī Kāmil al-Mālikī; born July 20, 1950), also known as Jawad al-Maliki, is the Prime Minister of Iraq and the secretary-general of the Islamic Dawa Party. ... The Islamic Dawa Party or Islamic Call Party (Arabic حزب الدعوة الإسلامية Ḥizb al Daʿwa al-Islāmiyya) is, historically, a militant Shiite Islamic group and, presently, an Iraqi conservative political party. ... Andrew Luster Andrew Stuart Luster (b. ... Filiberto Ojeda Ríos (April 26, 1933 – September 23, 2005) was the Responsible General of the Boricua Popular Army, or Ejército Popular Boricua – Los Macheteros, a clandestine paramilitary, organization, considered by United States law enforcement agencies to be a terrorist organization, based on the island of Puerto Rico, with... Bernardo Provenzano (born January 31, 1933 in Corleone, Italy) is a member of the Sicilian Mafia (Cosa Nostra) and is suspected of having been the head of the Corleonesi, a Mafia faction that originated in the village of Corleone, and de facto capo di tutti capi (boss of bosses) of... This article is about the criminal society. ... Helen Folasade Adu (born 16 January 1959), MBE, known professionally as Sade (IPA pronunciation: ), is a Nigerian-born Grammy Award-winning English soul, jazz, R&B, and adult contemporary singer, songwriter, composer, and record producer, noted for her soulful, smoky contralto. ... Michael Townley, a U.S. expatriate, first worked for the CIA before working for the DINA, Chilean secret police under Augusto Pinochets dictatorship, where he participated in operation Condor. ... Look up Dina in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... For other uses, see Rome (disambiguation). ... Bernardo Leighton (born on August 16, 1909 - died on January 26, 1995) was a Chilean Christian Democrat who has been targeted by Operation Condor. ... Shalom Weiss was an American businessman who was convicted of several criminal counts relating to the bankruptcy of National Heritage Life Insurance. ...

See also

• List of Latin phrases
• Right to a fair trial
• Death in absentia

This page lists direct English translations of common Latin phrases, such as veni vidi vici and et cetera. ... The Right to a fair trial is an essential right in all countries respecting the rule of law. ... Death in absentia describes a legal finding of death if a person has been missing for more than a certain period of time. ...

References

1. ^ "Agent of Chilean Secret Service Convicted of Murder Attempt", UPI, 1993-03-11.