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High court to review double-homicide case (UPDATE)

By: Erika Strebel, [email protected]//May 26, 2016//

High court to review double-homicide case (UPDATE)

By: Erika Strebel, [email protected]//May 26, 2016//

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Of the nearly 60 cases submitted for review, the Wisconsin Supreme Court has voted to take up only one: a double-homicide case out of La Crosse County.

The nearly 60 other cases put up for review hailed from 22 counties, according to a news release. The one the justices decided to weigh in on, State v. Lepsch, involves juror selection and the swearing-in process.

A jury in 2013 convicted Jeffrey Lepsch of shooting and killing a father and son. The killings occurred the year before, when Lepsch was robbing a family-run photography store in downtown La Crosse.

Lepsch is serving two life sentences for first-degree intentional homicide, 25 years of confinement and 15 years of extended supervision for armed robbery with the use of force. He also got 5 years of initial confinement and 15 years of extended supervision for being a felon in possession of a firearm.

He appealed his conviction to the Court of Appeals, contending the jurors were improperly sworn-in outside of his presence and that the jurors were subjectively and objectively biased. The Court of Appeals disagreed, and Lepsch asked the Supreme Court to review the case.

Besides his objections concerning how jurors were sworn in at his original trial, Lepsch argues the circuit court failed to properly determine whether each juror was impartial. He contends such a determination is required by the case of Patton v. Young, which the Supreme Court decided in 1984.

A decision in Lepsch’s case could clarify the standards for evaluating a juror’s impartiality and for swearing in jurors.

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