Opinion ID: 2994963
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: facts

Text: On January 16, 1982, Christopher Mohr was found dead, the victim of fifty-seven stab wounds and multiple head traumas. Though there were no eyewitnesses to the murder, the police investigation ultimately centered on Jeffrey Denny and his brother Kent Denny. Subsequent to Mohr’s slaying, both Jeffrey and his brother made numerous inculpatory statements, vaunting about the murder to family members, friends, and acquaintances. In due time, those statements caught up with the pair, as they were arrested and scheduled to be tried jointly for first degree murder. On August 27, 1982, at a pretrial hearing, Jeffrey objected to the admission of statements made by Kent which implicated Jeffrey in the crime, and further moved to sever his trial from that of his brother. The trial court, relying on the plurality opinion of the Supreme Court in Parker v. Randolph, 442 U.S. 62 (1979) denied the motion, finding that the prosecution intended to present testimony of interlocking inculpatory statements by both co-defendants. At their joint trial, neither co-defendant testified, though numerous witnesses testified as to Kent and Jeffrey’s confessions. The trial culminated on November 16, 1982, with a judgment of conviction being entered against Jeffrey on one count of first degree murder under Wis. Stat sec. 940.01./1 On December 5, 1984, in an unpublished order, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals affirmed Jeffrey’s conviction. In 1987, the Supreme Court revisited the issue of interlocking confessions in the case of Cruz, 481 U.S. 186. Contrary to the plurality decision in Parker--which the Wisconsin courts had relied on in denying Jeffrey’s motion--a majority of the Court in Cruz determined that, in a joint trial, the interlocking nature of confessions did not preclude a Confrontation Clause violation. Thereafter, Jeffrey filed a motion for a new trial under Wis. Stat. sec. 974.06, arguing that the admission of Kent Denny’s confessions violated his rights under the Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment as interpreted in the Supreme Court’s decision of Cruz. A hearing was held on the matter, and on April 24, 1990, the trial court denied Jeffrey’s motion. That decision was affirmed by the Wisconsin Court of Appeals on May 15, 1991. See Denny, 163 Wis.2d. at 352. The court noted in its decision that Cruz would require reversal only if Kent Denny’s statements which incriminated Jeffrey were not directly admissible against Jeffrey at their joint trial. However, because the court concluded that the statements were directly admissible against Jeffrey--as falling within the firmly-rooted hearsay exception of statements against interest--the court found that the Confrontation Clause posed no bar to the admission of those declarations. See id. at 358. Additionally, the court stated that because of the overwhelming evidence of guilt, any error in admitting the statements of Kent Denny would be considered harmless. See id. at 359-60. Thereafter, the Wisconsin Supreme Court denied Jeffrey’s appeal. State v. Denny, 474 N.W.2d at 107. On April 18, 1997, Jeffrey filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus with the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, challenging the admission of the inculpatory statements made by Kent Denny on the ground that the admission violated the Confrontation Clause. On December 2, 1998, the district court denied Jeffrey’s habeas petition. In doing so, the district court first noted that admission of Kent Denny’s statement through third parties did in fact violate Jeffrey’s rights under the Confrontation Clause. Specifically, the court ruled that the out-of-court statements did not come within a firmly-rooted exception to the hearsay rule, and were therefore admitted in violation of Jeffrey’s right of confrontation. However, because the court was convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that the jury would have convicted Jeffrey absent Kent Denny’s statement, the court found the error to be harmless. This Court issued a Certificate of Appealability on March 29, 2000, on the following issues: 1. Whether the introduction of Denny’s non-testifying co-defendant’s confession through the testimony of third-party witnesses violated Cruz v. New York, 481 U.S. 186 (1987)? 2. If Cruz was violated, was the error harmless? Because the district court found that there had been a Cruz violation, Jeffrey does not contest that ruling. Jeffrey does challenge, however, the district court’s finding that any error in admitting Kent’s statements constituted harmless error. Specifically, Jeffrey asserts that the district court improperly analyzed the harmlessness question under an inappropriate standard.