Cite as: 506 U. S. 255 (1993)
Opinion of the Court
tory of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure 236 (1991).
The Court of Appeals in the present case recognized that this Court in Diaz had not addressed the situation of the defendant who fails to appear for the commencement of trial. Nevertheless, the court concluded: "It would be anomalous to attach more significance to a defendant's absence at commencement than to absence during more important substantive portions of the trial." 917 F. 2d, at 365. While it may be true that there are no "talismanic properties which differentiate the commencement of a trial from later stages," Government of the Virgin Islands v. Brown, 507 F. 2d 186, 189 (CA3 1975), we do not find the distinction between pretrial and midtrial flight so farfetched as to convince us that Rule 43 cannot mean what it says. As a general matter, the costs of suspending a proceeding already under way will be greater than the cost of postponing a trial not yet begun. If a clear line is to be drawn marking the point at which the costs of delay are likely to outweigh the interests of the defendant and society in having the defendant present, the commencement of trial is at least a plausible place at which to draw that line. See Hopt v. Territory of Utah, 110 U. S. 574, 579 (1884) (discussing the public's interest in strict enforcement of statutory requirement that defendant be present at trial).
There are additional practical reasons for distinguishing between flight before and flight during a trial. As did Diaz, the Rule treats midtrial flight as a knowing and voluntary waiver of the right to be present. Whether or not the right constitutionally may be waived in other circumstances—and we express no opinion here on that subject—the defendant's initial presence serves to assure that any waiver is indeed knowing. "Since the notion that trial may be commenced in absentia still seems to shock most lawyers, it would hardly seem appropriate to impute knowledge that this will occur to their clients." Starkey, Trial in Absentia, 54 N. Y. St.
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