[Cabs] question as to whether a legally blind juror tainted a criminal trial

[Chris Foster]

Hello Listers,
I would invite you to read the below article out of Grand Junction.
While there are a lot of missing pieces to the puzzle, this article may,
yet again, call in to question how we as blind people serve on jurries.
Of course, we know that we can and should serve.  However, a defense
team is working to use a juror's blindness to upset an entire trial.
I'll look forward to everyone's thoughts and opinions.  Chris Foster 
 
 


 <http://www.gjfreepress.com/assets/pdf/GJ590811214.PDF> Blagg Motion
for New Trial
GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. - Attorneys early next year will take up the
question of whether a legally blind juror tainted Michael Blagg's 2004
murder conviction.

In a telephone conference Friday morning with Chief Judge David Bottger,
parties agreed to meet again Feb. 17 to schedule a hearing date.

Assistant Mesa County District Attorney Rich Tuttle will handle the
issue for the District Attorney's Office. Blagg will be represented by
Brian Conners and Tina Fang, both state public defenders.

Former public defenders David Eisner and Ken Singer in 2005 sought a new
trial for Blagg, claiming Marilyn Charlesworth of Orchard Mesa failed to
disclose her disability during jury selection.

The Colorado Court of Appeals in 2005 said the issue couldn't be
examined until the appeal process for Blagg's jury trial conviction was
settled.

The Colorado Supreme Court in September essentially ended that appeal
process, declining to hear the case.

Blagg, 45, is serving life without parole for shooting and killing his
wife, Jennifer, at his family's home in the Redlands in November 2001.
Their daughter, Abby, was never found and is presumed dead.

According to the 2005 motion from Eisner and Singer, Charlesworth
allegedly told other jurors on the Blagg panel that she was legally
blind. 

"She couldn't see a lot of the stuff that they presented, like the
pictures, and that stuff, that were shown, she couldn't see those unless
they were right in front of her."

The motion said an investigator with the public defender's office
interviewed Shirley Kreutzer, a court bailiff during Blagg's trial, who
claimed Charlesworth at one point asked her if she could move from the
back row to the front in the jury box where she could see better.

Kreutzer reportedly asked Charlesworth if she'd made her vision problems
known.

"... Ms. Charlesworth stated that she didn't consider the fact that she
was legally blind to be a handicap," the motion said.

Reach Paul Shockley at  <mailto:pshockley at gjfreepress.com>
pshockley at gjfreepress.com