1. Whether an unrecorded ex-parte communication between a trial judge and a deadlocked jury where the physical note of the communication was subsequently lost violates a defendant's Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments right to be present at every critical stage of trial and constitutes structural error requiring automatic reversal, an issue on which the federal circuits are deeply divided?

2. When a trial court restricts a pro se defendant's access to the sole piece of evidence necessary to prepare a defense, does the Sixth Amendment require a searching inquiry into whether the restriction renders the right of self representation illusory, as some circuits hold, or does a deferential, prejudice-based review suffice, as other circuits maintain?

Whether an unrecorded ex-parte communication between a trial judge and a deadlocked jury violates a defendant's Sixth and Fourteenth Amendment rights to be present at every critical stage of trial and constitutes structural error requiring automatic reversal, and whether a trial court's restriction of a pro se defendant's access to evidence necessary to prepare a defense requires a searching inquiry into whether the restriction renders the right of self-representation illusory