Opinion ID: 2600689
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Sayles Case

Text: Sayles was found guilty of second-degree murder, first-degree assault, and two counts of the crime of violence in a December 2003 jury trial for hitting the victim over the head with an empty beer bottle and then either pushing or chasing the victim into the path of an oncoming vehicle, which struck and killed the victim. The trial court sentenced Sayles to thirty years in the Department of Corrections on the second-degree murder conviction and consecutive sentences of various terms of years on the other convictions. On appeal, Sayles argued that the trial court, which was presided over by the same judge who presided over Washington's trial, erred in refusing to convene a new jury panel or to order a new trial based on the same statistical evidence presented by Washington. Relying on its opinion in Washington, the court of appeals denied Sayles's fair cross-section claim in an unpublished opinion. Sayles, slip op. at 8-9.