An appeals court in Wisconsin, faulting a judge for failing to pull his daughter-in-law from a panel of potential jurors for one of his cases, has ordered a new trail on that case, according to the Milwaukee Sentinel Journal.
http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/110892179.html
The Court of Appeals ruling means that a Sheboygan woman, Sharon Sellhausen, will have another chance to plead her case to a jury. She was convicted of battery on a law enforcement officer and disorderly conduct last year.
Her defense attorney used one of his challenges to have Judge L. Edward Stengel’s daughter-in-law excused during the voir dire. As it turned out, the sister-in-law did not sit on the jury.
The judge had asked the lawyers in the case if they wanted him to remove her, and said he would if they asked.
But in its ruling, the appeals court said that trial judges should “always remove any immediate relative from panels of prospective jurors,” according to the Milwaukee paper.
