State v. C.B. & State v. N.M.M., 2022AP906 & 966, 11/29/22, District 1 (one-judge decision; ineligible for publication); case activity C.B. and N.M.M. appeal the termination of their parental rights. They challenge the method the Milwaukee Clerk of Courts used to select the venire for their trial: drawing from a pool of “reserve jurors” and… Read more
3. Batson issues
The Legal Profession Blog reports on an ugly murder case out of New Jersey. Click here. A prosecutor tried to remove a Black prospective juror, F.G., for cause. When the judge ruled against the State, the prosecutor ran a records check on F.G., found a warrant and told the judge. The judge and the prosecutor… Read more
State v. Patrick D. Zolliecoffer, 2018AP1639-CR, 8/20/19, District 1 (not recommended for publication); case activity (including briefs) Zolliecoffer challenged two of the State’s peremptory strikes as racially based. On appeal, the State conceded that the circuit court failed to apply the 3-step procedure for analyzing Batson claims, which On Point recently explained here. Zolliecoffer urged… Read more
State v. Malcolm J. Sanders, 2019 WI App 52; case activity (including briefs) Sanders is black, and the DA struck the only black jurors from serving on his case because, even though they said they could be fair, they had had prior bad experiences with police, including being the subjects of racial profiling. Judges Gundrum… Read more
Flowers v. Mississippi, USSC No. 17-9572, 2019 WL 2552489, June 21, 2019, reversing Flowers v. State, 240 So. 3d 1082 (Miss. 2017); Scotusblog page (includes links to briefs and commentary) The Court reverses Curtis Flowers’ conviction and death sentence and orders a seventh new trial on the ground that the district attorney at his sixth trial… Read more
State v. Michael Exhavier Dunn, 2018AP783-CR, 4/30/19, District 1 (not recommended for publication); case activity (including briefs). The lead issues in this appeal are whether the jury pool for Dunn’s trial represented a fair cross section of the community and whether Dunn was denied equal protection when the DA struck 2 of the 3 African-Americans… Read more
State v. R.D.W., Sr., 2018AP351, 6/19/18, District 1, (1-judge opinion, ineligible for publication); case activity (including briefs) There were only 3 black jurors among the 25 on the panel for the grounds trial in this TPR cases. The ADA used peremptory challenges to strike all of them. The ensuing Batson hearing concerned only one–Juror 2. As… Read more
Foster v. Chatman, USSC No. 14-8349, 2016 WL 2945233 (May 23, 2016); reversing an unpublished order of the Supreme Court of Georgia; Scotusblog page (includes links to briefs and commentary) Timothy Foster, who is black, was convicted of murder and sentenced to death by an all-white jury. Long after his conviction, his attorneys obtained documents from… Read more
