09-2924 Stephenson v. Wilson

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Habeas Corpus
Ineffective assistance; visible restraints

A state court prisoner is not entitled to habeas corpus although his attorney failed to object to the court's requiring him to wear a stun belt during trial.
"The speculative nature of the inquiry into prejudice, combined with the fact that the evidence of Stephenson's guilt (summarized in the decision of the Supreme Court of Indiana affirming the conviction), although powerful, was not overwhelming, may make this seem a close case. It would be helpful if the effect of visible restraints on jurors had been subjected to careful empirical studies rather than left to judicial speculation. There are rigorous empirical studies of jury behavior. See, e.g., Jeffrey S. Neuschatz et al., 'The Effects of Accomplice Witnesses and Jailhouse Informants on Jury Decision Making,' 32 Law & Human Behavior 137 (2007); Dennis J. Devine et al., 'Deliberation Quality: A Preliminary Examination in Criminal Juries,' 4 J. Empirical L. Stud. 273 (2007); Theodore Eisenberg et al., 'Judge-Jury Agreement in Criminal Cases: A Partial Replication of Kalven and Zeisel's The American Jury,' 2 J. Empirical L. Stud. 171 (2005); Stephen P. Garvey, 'Aggravation and Mitigation in Capital Cases: What Do Jurors Think?,' 98 Colum. L. Rev. 1538 (1998); Theodore Eisenberg & Martin T. Wells, 'Deadly Confusion: Juror Instructions in Capital Cases,' 79 Cornell L. Rev. 1 (1993). As pointed out in Gacy v. Welborn, supra, 994 F.2d at 313, 'social science has challenged many premises of the jury system.' But no studies that the parties have cited or that we have found address the impact of visible restraints on jury deliberations. Nevertheless we conclude that Stephenson has failed to carry his burden of proving prejudice, even on the dubious premise that his counsel should have objected to the stun belt- dubious because the alternatives might have been worse."
Reversed and Remanded.

09-2924 Stephenson v. Wilson

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Indiana, Springmann, J., Posner, J.