Oliver v. Heritage Mutual Insurance

Although there are several important issues, we deem the main issue to be whether the trial court misused its discretion when it ordered that an African-American be placed in the jury array from the petit jury and later ordered that the same African-American be placed on the voir dire panel of prospective jurors even though he had not been randomly selected in either instance. We hold that although the trial court's action was only with the highest and purest motives, it violated sec. 756.096(2)(a), Stats., mandating random jury selection. We further hold, however, that no prejudice ensued,…