Or interesting stuff we couldn't get to otherwise. Coming to you straight from the documents themselves!
Please remember — these are generally taken from briefs and present the arguments of the parties appealing. They do not necessarily present the full story.
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Petition for Review
Case no: 22AP605
Case name: State v Donald Lee Billings
Court of Appeals District: II
Panel: Shelley Grogan, Mark Gundrum, Lisa Neubauer
Opinion author: Per curiam
Filing attorney: Steven Roy
Law firm / agency: Steven Roy Law
Circuit Court: Winnebago County
Judge: Daniel Bissett
Note: This case is a challenge to the state's method of establishing jury pools, which relies entirely on Department of Motor Vehicle and Social Security records. The petitioner alleges that method systematically excludes Black people, as does the exclusion of felons from jury pools.
While state law allows potential jurors to be selected from sources other than the DMV lists, including records of registered voters, income tax filers, child support payors and recipients, unemployment compensation recipients, and / or people holding Department of Natural Resources licenses or permissions, the courts do not use those methods.
Onward...
Reasons to Accept Review
The right to a trial by jury is one of, if not the defining characteristics of the American legal system. It places the responsibility of deciding whether a law has been broken with the people. The people are given the opportunity to examine the laws their legislators have enacted, review evidence collected by law enforcement, and determine whether their elected officials have met their high burden of proof. The venerable Lord Blackstone described the jury trial as the bulwark against tyrannical governments.
This case presents an opportunity for this court to answer an important question. How are courts supposed to evaluate whether distinct groups of the community have been excluded from jury service? This Court has remained silent for 50 years on this critical question. During that time period, there has been significant developments in this area of constitutional law, and analytical methods which are readily available to evaluate these claims.
In 1975, the Supreme Court of the United States issued a three part test to evaluate claims juries are not a fair representation of the community in Taylor v. Louisiana. The test was reiterated in Duren v. Mississippi (a typo - should be Duren v Missouri - AW) in 1979. Since then, the Court has largely left the development of this question to the lower courts. ...
The Wisconsin Court of Appeals has largely ignored this issue. While the issue has been raised, it has seldomly been raised well. Here, both the State and Mr. Billings requested publication so circuit courts would have an analytical framework to use when addressing Duren claims. The parties thoughtfully and diligently raised legal arguments for the court to consider.
The court of appeals decided to take a different route. The three judge panel created their own rationale for determining Mr. Billings was not entitled to relief: they believe a defendant must show there is an improper feature of the jury selection process. The Court decided this in a per curiam order. The decision conflicts with the Supreme Court’s fair cross section decisions as well as this Court’s fair-cross section law.
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