Harmless Court Error

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Criminal

7th Circuit Court of Appeals

Officials: WOOD, Chief Judge, and BAUER and MANION, Circuit Judges

Harmless Court Error

No.14-3097 United States of America v. Christopher Seifer

Appellant fails to show that conceded court error by government prejudiced his case.

“Nonetheless, the district court’s error does not entitle Seifer to a new trial because he has not shown that his random pick of the alternate juror at the close of evidence affected his substantial rights. See Mendoza, 510 F.3d at 754; Love, 134 F.3d at 601. Seifer contends that he was prejudiced because (1) we cannot tell from the record whether the 13 names in the box were written on papers of precisely the same size; (2) the district court ignored Wis. Stat. § 565.27(2)(b)(4) by conducting a “lottery” without inspecting the “equipment” before and after the drawing; and (3) juror number 13 probably expected to be the alternate and didn’t pay close attention to the evidence, thus creating an unfair jury panel. Each argument is meritless”

Affirmed

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Attorney Derek A. Hawkins is the managing partner 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.