Criminal Procedure -- anonymous juries.

Byline: WISCONSIN LAW JOURNAL STAFF

U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit

Criminal

Criminal Procedure -- anonymous juries

The defendant failed to show that her jury was anonymous.

"The only evidence Harris points to in arguing that the jury was anonymous are the judge's statements before con-ducting voir dire. Our analysis, and Harris's appellate argument, is hindered by the fact that Harris's trial counsel did not object and create a fuller record of what information, if any, was withheld from the parties and/or the public. But, because Harris's counsel relies only on the portion of the judge's voir dire statements quoted in full above, we will review that same portion to determine whether or not she can show the jury was anonymous. There are three reasons we find Harris has not met her burden. First, we do not believe the judge's statements, when examined alone, demonstrate that the jurors' names were unknown to the parties. The judge did not tell the jurors that their names were being kept from the parties, but instead said their names were not being stated in open court because 'to protect people's privacy, we try to refer to jurors by numbers now' and 'we do this just to protect your privacy, which is a very important consideration in the modern world.' While Harris's argument that these statements demonstrated that the...