Daily Case Update Archive

As a service to our members, we monitor opinions issued from the Ohio Supreme Court, the Ohio State First District Court of Appeals, and the United States Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.  You can read the latest summaries or archived summaries from 2005 or 2006.

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June 2, 2006

Ohio Supreme Court | Ohio First District | U.S. 6th Circuit - Ohio | U.S. 6th Circuit - Other States
 

TOPICS:
- Homicide - Juries - Evidence - Constitutional Law / Criminal
- Civil Miscellaneous
- Writ of habeas corpus
- Qualified immunity
 

Ohio Supreme Court

 

No Opinion.
 

First District Court of Appeals

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State v. Jordan (June 2, 2006)
-  http://www.sconet.state.oh.us/rod/newpdf/1/2006/2006-ohio-2759.pdf
-  The trial court did not err in ruling that the state's use of databases during voir dire to check the criminal records of three of the four African-American jurors in the venire, as well as its subsequent use of peremptory challenges to remove two of the African-American jurors, did not violate the defendant's rights under the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution and their counterparts in the Ohio Constitution:  The state had not systematically used the databases to exclude African-Americans from the jury, and it had provided race-neutral explanations for the two jurors' exclusions, namely that both jurors had been dishonest about their criminal records in their juror questionnaires and voir dire responses. The trial court did not violate the defendant's right to confrontation under the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution in permitting the state to impeach the defendant's brother with his grand-jury testimony and a handwritten statement he had provided to police:  The defendant was given the opportunity to cross-examine his brother at length about his prior statements, and the prior statements were admitted solely for the non-hearsay purpose of impeachment. The defendant's conviction for aggravated murder was not against the sufficiency or the manifest weight of the evidence, where several witnesses testified that the defendant had approached the victim, pulled a gun from his waist, demanded the victim's property, and then shot the victim in the chest. Judgment AFFIRMED.

Swann v. Cardiology Assoc. of Cincinnati (June 2, 2006)
-  http://www.sconet.state.oh.us/rod/newpdf/1/2006/2006-ohio-2758.pdf
-  The trial court did not err in granting summary judgment for an employer on an employee's claim of disability discrimination:  (1) In light of her resignation, the employee could not demonstrate that the employer had taken an adverse employment action against her, and she adduced no evidence that the employer had engaged in any egregious conduct to support a claim of constructive discharge; and (2) because the employee herself contended that she could not work full-time, she could not prove that she could perform the essential functions of her position. The trial court did not err in granting summary judgment for an employer on an employee's claim of racial discrimination:  The employee, an African-American, claimed that the employer had given Caucasian employees preferential treatment in allowing them to work part-time, but the evidence showed that the part-time positions were not comparable to the position that the plaintiff had occupied. Judgment AFFIRMED.
 

U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals:  Ohio Cases

 

Giles v. Schotten (June 2, 2006) (Appeal from N.D. Ohio)
-  http://www.ca6.uscourts.gov/opinions.pdf/06a0187p-06.pdf
-  On May 17, 1993, Earl Giles was convicted on one count of felonious sexual penetration in violation of Ohio Revised Code § 2907.12 and one count of gross sexual imposition in violation of Ohio Revised Code § 2907.05. The conviction was upheld by the state appellate courts. On January 26, 1995, Giles filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254 in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio. The district court denied the petition. On appeal, the Sixth Circuit vacated the district court's judgment and remanded the case for further factual findings and, if necessary, an evidentiary hearing. On remand, the district court again denied Giles's habeas petition but granted a certificate of appealability on the issue of whether the trial court violated Giles's rights by denying him an additional independent medical examination of the children who were the alleged victims. Giles now appeals. We AFFIRM the denial of the petition.
 

U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals: Other States Cases

 

Barnes v. Wright (June 2, 2006) (Appeal from W.D. Kentucky)
-  http://www.ca6.uscourts.gov/opinions.pdf/06a0187p-06.pdf
-  Defendants-Appellants appeal the district court's denial of their motion to dismiss or for summary judgment as to whether they are entitled to absolute or qualified immunity. Conservation officers had a dispute with Wilbur Barnes ("Barnes"), in which Barnes criticized them for failing adequately to perform their duties; Barnes removed a gun from his pocket, prompting one of the officers also to pull out his gun. The officers initiated and testified in grand jury proceedings against Barnes, who was later convicted in state court of three counts of second-degree wanton endangerment for pointing a gun at one of the officers. Barnes filed a complaint in federal district court, alleging that the officers maliciously prosecuted him and retaliated against him in violation of the First Amendment. The officers argue that they are entitled to absolute immunity, or, in the alternative, to qualified immunity. For the reasons discussed below, we REVERSE the district court's denial of qualified immunity to the officers.
 

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