Court Opinion

ID: 9520762
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 01:49:16.97606+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:46:50.977651
License: Public Domain

*507JANINE P. GESKE, J.
¶ 58. (dissenting). I join Part I of Justice Bradley's dissent. I write separately to express my deep concern that the majority has substantially and inappropriately restricted the circuit court's discretion during the voir dire process. In almost every serious felony case, honest prospective jurors express concerns about the heinous factual allegations, the presumption of innocence, a prior record, other acts testimony, a defendant's option not to testify, evaluating a police officer's testimony in the same manner as other witnesses, or the victimization of a child, elderly or disabled person. We encourage trial judges to explore those fears, biases, and natural reactions with the members of the prospective jury panel. Few people can honestly tell the court that they are bothered by some of these factors in the case and then absolutely, without equivocation, reassure the judge that they are certain they can disregard their concerns. Most honest people can only commit that they will do their best to be fair. The trial judge must then, based upon his or her own assessment of that person's sincerity and ability to be fair, decide whether that person is qualified to sit on that particular case.
¶ 59. Judge Naze conducted just such a discussion and assessment here. He concluded, based upon what he heard and observed, that the juror could be fair. The majority disagrees with Judge Naze's assessment. Instead, the majority concludes that Mr. Metzler, whom none of us on this court ever heard or observed, maintained a manifest bias and could not be a fair juror. Exchanges like the one between Judge Naze and juror Metzler occur in Wisconsin courtrooms every day. Trial judges, in both civil and criminal cases, routinely make the type of assessment that Judge Naze did here. Whether any of us on this court may have *508made the same discretionary call as Judge Naze is not relevant to our discussion. That judgment call belonged to the trial judge in the courtroom and not to us in the supreme court conference room reading bare words on a transcript.
¶ 60. In this opinion the majority has, in effect, told the circuit courts that appellate courts are in a better position to make this judgment call. The majority gives no guidance to trial judges as to where their discretion ends. Because of this decision, the court of appeals must now assume the new task of looking at the answers of prospective jurors on cases which have already been tried, to reach an appellate court assessment of whether a juror should have been struck for cause. This court should have left that discretion where it belongs — in the hands of the trial judges.