Court Opinion

ID: 9742013
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 21:05:22.31282+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:07:04.725985
License: Public Domain

HANLEY, J.
(dissenting). I respectfully dissent from that part of the majority opinion stating that prejudicial error was committed and a new trial is required.
The majority’s opinion is based on the hypothesis that reference to the defendant’s silence in failing to profess his innocence turned the scale. In so holding the majority have neglected to use the balancing scale of justice. *383The overwhelming circumstantial evidence was neither weighed nor referred to in the opinion.
The following evidence was sufficient, without regard to the improper testimony and prosecutorial remarks, to establish the defendant’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
1. The defendant owned the .22 caliber semi-automatic pistol used to commit the two murders, and the police found it concealed under the trap door of the defendant’s trailer. The testimony established that it was not possible to reach under the skirt of the defendant’s trailer from the outside.
2. The defendant informed the officer that he had a single-shot .22 caliber rifle- in his trailer, which the officer saw to be in a dismantled condition. At that time the defendant made no reference to his .22 caliber semiautomatic pistol. It must have been obvious to the jury that the voluntary display of a dismantled rifle was to clear himself of any suspicion.
3. Two police officers testified that the defendant admitted that the only fresh tracks which were discovered near the chain saw shop were his tracks. At trial the defendant denied that he had made the admission.
4. The testimony established that while the defendant was at the Wood Tick Bar on the evening before the murders, defendant requested and obtained the keys to Mike Anderson’s car, where he knew his pistol was kept, saying that he wished to obtain his clothes and mail from the car. Although the defendant left the bar after obtaining the keys, he denied that he ever entered the vehicle that night, claiming that he forgot about his belongings.
5. Although the defendant testified that he was in his trailer next to the chain saw shop when the murders occurred, he denied hearing any of the nine shots which were fired. The distance from the trailer to the shop was estimated to be about 37 feet.
*3846. On the afternoon following the murders, Mike Anderson saw the defendant as Anderson was getting off the school bus. The defendant approached Anderson and said that Anderson was supposed to say that the gun was his.
7. There was testimony that on the Friday before December 11, 1974, the deceased, Marvin Collins, Jr., slapped the defendant and stated “he was going to make a man out of him if it was the last thing he ever did.”
In this writer’s opinion the improper testimony and prosecutorial remarks relative to defendant’s silence in failing to profess his innocence are so immaterial and irrelevant that no jury would consider it worthy of deliberation. The impropriety referred to at most would imply a presumption of guilt. However, this would be sufficiently negated by the standard instruction given in every criminal case.
“The law presumes every person charged with the commission of an offense to be innocent. This presumption attends the defendant throughout the trial and prevails at its close unless overcome by evidence which satisfies the jury of his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. The defendant is not required to prove his innocence.” Wis. J.I. — Criminal 140.
This court has held that errors occurring in the course of a trial will not serve to overturn a conviction unless it clearly appears that had they not occurred, the result would probably have been more favorable to the defendant. Woodhull v. State, 43 Wis.2d 202, 217, 168 N.W.2d 281 (1969).
Both the United States Supreme Court and this court have stated: “While a defendant is most certainly entitled to a fair trial, he is not necessarily entitled to a perfect trial.” Nyberg v. State, 75 Wis.2d 400, 411, 249 N.W.2d 529 (1977); Michigan v. Tucker, 417 U.S. 433, 446 (1974).
*385I believe the defendant was fairly tried and convicted upon ample credible evidence and would affirm the judgment of conviction. I am authorized to state that Mr. Justice CONNOR T. HANSEN joins in this dissent.