25. Jury

State v. Martez C. Fennell, 2017AP2480-CR, District 1, 3/26/19 (not recommended for publication); case activity (including briefs) Fennell unsuccessfully challenges his convictions for armed robbery and operating a vehicle without the owner’s consent, arguing that the charges are multiplicitous and that trial counsel should have subpoenaed a witness who would have impeached the victim’s identification… Read more

Evangelisto Ramos v. Louisiana, USSC No. 18-5924, certiorari granted 3/18/19, Reversed 4/20/20 Question presented: Whether the Fourteenth Amendment fully incorporates the Sixth Amendment guarantee of a unanimous verdict? Decision below: State v. Ramos, 231 So.3d 44 (La. App. 2017) USSC Docket Scotusblog page (including links to briefs and commentary) Close on the heels of its… Read more

State v. Emmanuel Earl Trammell, 2017AP1202-CR, petition for review of per curiam opinion granted 11/13/18; case activity (including briefs) Issues (from the petition for review): 1.   Is this Court’s holding in Avila–that it is “not reasonably likely” that the standard JI-140 reduces the State’s burden of proof–good law; or should it be overruled by the… Read more

State v. John P. Bougneit, 2018AP74, 10/24/18, District 2 (one-judge decision; ineligible for publication); case activity (including briefs) A jury convicted Bougneit of fourth-degree sexual assault; he allegedly nonconsensually fondled an 18-year-old woman under a blanket while he, the woman, and his wife were watching a movie together at their house. The wife testified for… Read more

State v. Keith J. Brooks, 2017AP1723-CR, 9/25/18, District 1 (not recommended for publication); case activity (including briefs) Brooks was tried for first-degree intentional homicide. The jury acquitted him of that but convicted of the lesser-included first-degree reckless. He argues his trial lawyers were ineffective because they pursued a strategy that would have let the jury… Read more

Sheboygan County DHHS v. K.N.L., 2017AP2413, District 2, 8/22/18 (one-judge decision; ineligible for publication); case activity K.N.L. asserts a prospective juror (“Juror J.”) was biased and so the circuit court erred in declining to strike her for cause. Applying Wisconsin’s case law governing jury bias (summarized at ¶¶13-16), the court of appeals affirms the circuit court’s conclusion… Read more

Looking for a creative objection? Consider this excerpt from the abstract on Michael Cicchini’s new article,  Spin Doctors: Prosecutor Sophistry and the Burden of Proof, forthcoming in the University of Cincinnati Law Review. In two recently published studies, mock jurors who received truth-based instructions convicted at significantly higher rates than those who were simply instructed on… Read more