Postconviction Relief – Fifth Amendment Right Against Self-Incrimination

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WI Court of Supreme Court

Case Name: State of Wisconsin v. Tomas Jaymitchell Hoyle

Case No.: 2020AP001876-CR

Officials: Annette Kingsland Ziegler, C.J.

Focus: Postconviction Relief – Fifth Amendment Right Against Self-Incrimination

This is a review of an unpublished decision of the court of appeals, State v. Hoyle, No. 2020AP1876-CR, unpublished slip op. (Wis. Ct. App. Apr. 26, 2022), reversing the Chippewa County circuit court’s judgment of conviction against Tomas Jaymitchell Hoyle for two counts each of second-degree sexual assault and second-degree sexual assault of a child, and also reversing the circuit court’s order denying Hoyle’s motion for postconviction relief. The Supreme Court reverses

Hoyle argues that he is entitled to a new trial because the prosecutor at Hoyle’s trial violated his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination under Griffin v. California, 380 U.S. 609 (1965), by adversely commenting on his decision not to testify. According to Hoyle, the prosecutor argued “that Hoyle should be convicted because the alleged victim’s testimony was ‘uncontroverted'” and that this was a comment on Hoyle’s decision not to testify because “[o]nly Hoyle could have contradicted [the alleged victim’s] sexual assault allegations.”

Hoyle is not entitled to postconviction relief. The prosecutor at Hoyle’s criminal trial did not violate Hoyle’s Fifth Amendment rights under Griffin because the prosecutor did not comment on Hoyle’s silence.

Reversed

Decided 03/31/23

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