6th Amendment Violation – Confrontation Clause

Listen to this article

WI Court of Appeals – District I

Case Name: State of Wisconsin v. Jarmel Dontra Chisem

Case No.: 2017AP1114-CR

Officials: Brennan, Brash and Dugan, JJ.

Focus: 6^th Amendment Violation – Confrontation Clause

Jarmel Dontra Chisem appeals his judgment of conviction after a jury convicted him of first-degree reckless homicide as a party to a crime while using a dangerous weapon, as a repeater, and first-degree recklessly endangering safety as a party to a crime while using a dangerous weapon, as a repeater. Chisem also appeals from the trial court’s order denying his motion for postconviction relief.

Chisem argues that the trial court erred when it denied his motion for severance from his codefendant, Howard Davis. Chisem’s basis for this argument is focused on out-of-court inculpatory statements made by Davis to three witnesses for the State, which were admitted at trial. Chisem asserts that since these statements implicated only Davis, they were not admissible for two reasons: (1) because Davis exercised his Fifth Amendment right not to testify, and Chisem was unable to cross-examine Davis regarding these statements, Chisem argues that his right to confrontation was violated; and (2) that even if there was no confrontation violation, the testimony relating to these statements by Davis would have been inadmissible hearsay at a separate trial against Chisem. He also alleges that the trial court did not receive notice prior to trial that the State planned to introduce those statements.

We agree with the trial court that there was no Confrontation Clause violation in this case. We also agree that there was no discovery violation based on the lost recording, as the record indicates that Chisem had actual notice of that witness’s statement. We further conclude that even if we assume, for the sake of argument, that all of the challenged statements would have been inadmissible hearsay in a separate trial, any error in their admission was harmless. We therefore affirm.

Full Text

Derek A Hawkins is trademark corporate counsel for Harley-Davidson. Hawkins oversees the prosecution and maintenance of the Harley-Davidson’s international trademark portfolio in emerging markets.