Opinion ID: 2974873
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Procedure on Remand to State Court

Text: Nevertheless, we anticipate that Davis’s counsel will renew his motion to withdraw the jury waiver upon remand to the state trial court for the new sentencing hearing necessitated by our finding of Skipper error. We note that under Ohio Revised Code § 2945.05, a waiver of jury trial “may be withdrawn by the defendant at any time before the commencement of trial.” Granted, the resentencing hearing that we order today will not constitute a “trial” in the sense that the petitioner’s guilt or innocence is again at issue. However, in this case, the proceeding can indeed be considered the functional equivalent of “trial” because, unlike sentencing in a non-capital case, it will take the form of an evidentiary proceeding on the question of whether Davis should receive the death penalty or some form of a life sentence. Moreover, we think there is a legitimate question as to whether a criminal defendant should be held to a jury waiver entered almost 25 years before his newly-mandated sentencing hearing. In the Sixth Circuit, at least, we have recognized that a defendant’s jury waiver entered prior to the first trial of his case does not bar his right to a jury trial on the same case after remand from a reviewing court. See, e.g., United States v. Groth, 682 F.2d 578, 580 (6th Cir. 1982) (“waiver of a jury trial does not bar a demand for a jury on retrial of the same case unless the original waiver explicitly covers this contingency”); United States v. Lee, 539 F.2d 606, 608 (6th Cir. 1976) (“when a reviewing court finds error in the conduct of a trial and reverses with directions for a new trial . . . the general rule is that a litigant is not bound by his prior waiver of a jury trial . . . [u]nless the language of a waiver unambiguously states that it will apply in all retrials should they be ordered”). Accord Sinistaj v. Burt, 66 F.3d 804, 808 (6th Cir. 1995) (rule in Groth inapplicable when no event such as reversal and remand for a new trial intervenes between the waiver and the attempted withdrawal). Likewise, the Ohio courts have held, in reversing a conviction “on the basis that [the defendant] was neither charged nor found guilty of an essential element of the offense,” that the defendant’s “previous waiver of a jury trial is also inherently revoked by the reversal of the conviction and the [amended] indictment.” State v. McGee, 715 N.E.2d 1175, 1178 (Ohio Ct. App. 1998). That conclusion was based on the fact that on remand, additional evidence would be introduced from both the prosecution and the defense, as is likely to occur on remand of this case. While not directly on point, because Davis is not facing a new indictment, the reasoning of the Ohio court in McGee should certainly inform the sentencing court’s determination of the viability of Davis’s jury waiver on remand. No. 02-3227 Davis v. Coyle Page 17