25. Jury

Question presented: Whether, after a judge has discharged a jury from service in a case and the jurors have left the judge’s presence, the judge may recall the jurors for further service in the same case. Lower court decision: Dietz v. Bouldin, 794 F.3d 1093 (9th Cir. 2015) Docket Scotusblog page The federal circuit courts… Read more

State v. Trista J. Ziehr, 2015AP994-CR, 1/13/16, District 2 (one-judge opinion, ineligible for publication); case activity, including briefs There isn’t much case law on Wisconsin’s “mandatory reporter” requirement, and this opinion makes no attempt to fill the gaps. Ziehr ran a daycare center and thus had a mandatory duty to report child abuse to the proper… Read more

State v. Davis Kevin Lewis, 2014AP2773-CR, District 1, 12/01/2015 (not recommended for publication); case activity (including briefs) Lewis (whose first name is itself a matter of dispute, (¶1 n.2)) brings three challenges to his conviction after trial; all are rejected. The state charged Lewis with sexual assault of K.W., a cognitively disabled man for whom he was a… Read more

State v. Larry D. Wright, 2014AP2672, District 1, 11/24/15 (not recommended for publication); case activity (including State’s brief) The court of appeals rebuffs Wright’s claim that postconviction counsel was ineffective for not raising a claim of ineffective assistance of trial counsel on direct appeal. The court also rejects Wright’s claim that the trial court engaged in improper ex parte communication with… Read more

Review of a published court of appeals decision; case activity (including briefs) In this case the supreme court will address an important issue about the offense of using a computer to facilitate a child sex crime, § 948.075(1r). The court of appeals granted McKellips a new trial on a charge under that statute, holding the jury was erroneously… Read more

State v. Jeffrey L. Elverman, 2015 WI App 91; case activity (including state’s brief) The court rejects all challenges to a conviction of theft of more than $10,000. The issues mostly spring from the state’s use of Wis. Stat. § 971.36(4), which permits, under certain circumstances, the aggregation of multiple thefts into a single count. Elverman was a lawyer… Read more

The Marshall Project offers an interesting analysis of Foster v. Chatman, a case that SCOTUS on Monday. Hopefully, the decision will give defense lawyers betters tools for proving that the prosecution engaged in racial discrimination during jury selection. Click here for the Marshall Project’s analysis. And here is SCOTUSblog’s report on the actual argument… Read more