Cumulative effect of harmless errors is still harmless, rules Wisconsin Supreme Court.

• Author: Ziemer, David

Byline: David Ziemer

It is axiomatic that nothing plus nothing equals nothing.

But sometimes, something plus something, plus something, plus something more, still adds up to nothing.

In the case of Ronell E. Harris, even though the State committed numerous discovery violations, improper evidence was admitted, and the trial court erred in not sanctioning the State for its errors, the Wisconsin Supreme Court held that each error was harmless, and the cumulative effect of numerous harmless errors don't add up to a new trial.

Writing on Thursday for a unanimous Supreme Court, Chief Justice Shirley S. Abrahamson concluded, The State has demonstrated beyond a reasonable doubt that the aggregated errors did not, under the totality of the circumstances, contribute to the verdict against the defendant or undermine confidence in the verdict.

The justices agreed with Harris that the State violated the discovery statute, sec. 971.23, by not disclosing before trial that fingerprint testing had been performed on evidence, but that no fingerprints belonging to the defendant were found.

The Supreme Court also agreed with Harris that the discovery statute was violated by the State's failure to disclose a statement Harris had made.

The justices further agreed with Harris that it was error to admit evidence of the nature of paperwork belonging to the defendant - criminal court documents - rather than just presenting evidence that generic paperwork linked...