By: Derek Hawkins//January 6, 2020//
WI Court of Appeals – District IV
Case Name: State of Wisconsin v. Damario J. Graham
Case No.: 2018AP2321-CR
Officials: Blanchard, Kloppenburg, and Graham, JJ.
Focus: Ineffective Assistance of Counsel
Damario Graham appeals a judgment of conviction for armed robbery as a party to the crime. He argues that his trial counsel provided ineffective assistance in two respects: (1) mishandling pretrial litigation regarding one witness’s out-of-court identifications of photographic images linking Graham to the armed robbery; (2) failing to object to trial testimony by a police officer that, in his experience, some surveillance video images fail to show tattoos that are actually on the hands and forearms of the persons depicted in the surveillance videos. Regarding the identification issue, we assume deficient performance by trial counsel and conclude that Graham fails to show prejudice resulting from the assumed deficient performance. Regarding the clarity of video images issue, we conclude that Graham fails to show deficient performance.