Brown v. Davenport
U.S. Supreme Court · decided April 21, 2022 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Decided
- April 21, 2022
- Term
- October Term 2021
- Vote
- 6–3
- Majority author
- Justice Gorsuch
- Issue area
- Criminal Procedure
- Disposition
- Reversed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
(Slip Opinion) OCTOBER TERM, 2021 1 Syllabus NOTE: Where it is feasible, a syllabus (headnote) will be released, as is being done in connection with this case, at the time the opinion is issued. The syllabus constitutes no part of the opinion of the Court but has been prepared by the Reporter of Decisions for the convenience of the reader. See United States v. Detroit Timber & Lumber Co., 200 U. S. 321 , 337. SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES Syllabus BROWN, ACTING WARDEN v. DAVENPORT CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT No. 20–826. Argued October 5, 2021—Decided April 21, 2022 Ervine Davenport was convicted of first-degree murder following a jury trial where, at times, he sat shackled at a table with a “privacy screen.” On appeal, he argued that his conviction should be set aside in light of Deck v. Missouri, 544 U. S. 622 , in which this Court held that the Four- teenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause generally forbids shackling a criminal defendant at trial absent “a special need.” Id., at 626 . Find- ing no “special need” articulated in the record, the Michigan Supreme Court agreed that a Deck violation had occurred and remanded the case to the trial court to determine under Chapman v. California, 386 U. S. 18 , whether the prosecution could establish that the Deck error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. On remand, the trial court…
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