Wayne County Circuit Judge Annette Berry “properly instructed jurors to issue a guilty or not-guilty verdict on the first-degree murder charge, but erred when she failed to include not guilty as a choice for the lesser offenses of second degree murder or involuntary manslaughter.”

As a result, a Michigan state appellate court has overturned an involuntary manslaughter decision.

When I first heard this I was wondering why and how this would happen. I was under the impression that all of those forms are standardized, like a scan-tron or something. But apparently, Judge Berry had made up her own version. I’m wondering if the guy rubbed her in especially the wrong way, or maybe she moonlight as a graphic or web designer in her off time?? Who knows…

“The case involved Michael Jess Wade, a security guard who was convicted in 2007 of fatally shooting a suspected thief at a Detroit Police Department impound yard. He received a three-to-15-year sentence, but will receive a new trial as a result of the mistake made by Wayne County Circuit Judge Annette Berry.”

“Wade’s appellate attorney, Kevin Gentry of the Gentry Law Office in Whitmore Lake, Mich., believes it was an honest mistake.”

“I have no reason to believe otherwise,” Gentry said.

“The jury foreman actually got up and had some confusion. He was stuttering about … and before he could get a question out, the judge said, ‘Just tell me which box you checked,’ ” Gentry said. “And then the judge accepted that as a verdict.”

Since the verdict form was defective, the decision required reversal, it didn’t give the jury the opportunity to return a general verdict of not guilty.

“[B]ecause of the way the verdict form was set up, the jury was not given the opportunity to find the defendant either generally not guilty or not guilty of the lesser-included offenses in violation of his constitutional right to a trial by jury.” The three-judge panel wrote in its opinion on Tuesday.”

Of all of the stuff I come across on the net, I have never heard of this one before. Make sure you double check the verdict form if you ever have a trial with this judge.

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