Argued: December 7, 2017
Appeal
from the United States District Court for the Eastern
District of Michigan at Detroit. No. 2:14-cv-14560-Sean F.
Cox, District Judge.
ARGUED:
Michael L. Mittlestat, STATE APPELLATE DEFENDER OFFICE,
Detroit, Michigan, for Appellant.
Bruce
H. Edwards, OFFICE OF THE MICHIGAN ATTORNEY GENERAL, Lansing,
Michigan, for Appellee.
ON
BRIEF:
Michael L. Mittlestat, STATE APPELLATE DEFENDER OFFICE,
Detroit, Michigan, for Appellant.
Bruce
H. Edwards, OFFICE OF THE MICHIGAN ATTORNEY GENERAL, Lansing,
Michigan, for Appellee.
Before: SILER, WHITE, and THAPAR, Circuit Judges.
OPINION
SILER,
Circuit Judge.
Petitioner Martez Bickham appeals the district court's
denial of his petition for habeas corpus, in which he argues
that the Michigan trial court violated his Sixth Amendment
right to a public trial by closing the courtroom during voir
dire.
We
affirm the district court's denial of Bickham's
petition because he failed to comply with Michigan's
contemporaneous-objection rule and is, therefore,
procedurally barred from pursuing his Sixth Amendment habeas
claim.
FACTUAL
AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND
Following
a jury trial in Michigan state court, Bickham was convicted
of second-degree murder, armed robbery, assault with intent
to commit armed robbery, and possession of a firearm during
the commission of a felony. As voir dire was about to
commence at Bickham's trial, court officers began to
clear the public from the courtroom. Bickham's counsel
objected to the public's removal, citing Presley v.
Georgia, 558 U.S. 209 (2010), which established that a
criminal defendant's Sixth Amendment right to a public
trial is violated when a trial court excludes the public from
jury selection. In response to Bickham's objection, the
trial court stated:
The Court is not excluding people from being in the
courtroom. Right now the deputies are removing the spectators
or people who are in the courtroom in order to allow . . .
the jury panel of over fifty people be allowed in, and so
that they are not intermixed with the audience, and so once
the whole panel is in, those who fit separately from the jury
can be allowed in. But we cannot bring a jury in with the
number of people in this courtroom. They fill the bleachers,
and in order to conduct voir dire, we need the jury panel to
fit into the courtroom.
[BICKHAM'S COUNSEL]: I understand, Judge, I just wanted
to bring that ...