Fraudster Loses Appeal Over Hand-Raising Jury Selection Process

A Michigan man convicted of Covid-19 program relief fraud lost his appeal Monday challenging a magistrate judge’s refusal to demand verbal responses from would-be jurors during the selection process.

Johnny Ho argued that his Sixth Amendment right to a fair trial was violated because the lower court’s process allowed prospective jurors to provide “non-answers” in response to questions, effectively depriving him of the ability to exercise his peremptory challenges, or objections, to proposed jurors.

But a jury is presumed to do what it’s told, and the instructions here were clear, the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit said ...