Jury Duty

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Criminal

7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Officials: POSNER, SYKES, and HAMILTON, Circuit Judges.

Jury Duty

No. 14-3730 USA v. Karenza Pickering

Judge improperly placed federal criminal conviction on appellant record and improperly convicted appellant of willful disobedience of a summons where no evidence of willfulness was presented.

“Although the judge said that he had found her guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, actually he’d shifted the burden of proof to her—she had to convince him that she had not willfully disobeyed the summons. She was the only witness. She testified in detail and without contradiction or internal inconsistency that she had “had a lot of things that were happening all at one time”—that she “was trying to help my sick mother and out on family medical leave. I was pregnant. I experienced complications with my first child,” and so she had forgotten the summons. The judge, consistent with his shifting the burden of proof to her, said (to whom? Oddly not to her): “I’m not persuaded by her statement that she was busy and forgot” (emphasis added). Yet obviously she was very busy and harassed during the critical period, and he could not lawfully place the burden of proving innocence on her in a criminal proceeding.”

Reversed and Remanded – Acquittal

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Attorney Derek A. Hawkins is the managing attorney at Hawkins Law Offices LLC, where he heads up the firm’s startup law practice. He specializes in business formation, corporate governance, intellectual property protection, private equity and venture capital funding and mergers & acquisitions. Check out the website at www.hawkins-lawoffices.com or contact them at 262-737-8825.