The Ohio Supreme Court will hear a case involving whether a deaf person should have been allowed to sit on a jury. Linda Leow-Johannsen heard the trial of a man convicted involuntary manslaughter. But his conviction was overturned by an appeals court. It ruled that Leow-Johannsen should not have been allowed to serve on the jury because she couldn't hear the 911 tape introduced as evidence.
Defense attorneys tried to have Leow-Johannsen removed from the jury even before the trial started because she acknowledged that her hearing-impairment might make it harder for her to follow the trial. But she told the judge she didn't think it would be a problem for her to serve on the jury. The judge denied the defense motion. Leow-Johannsen reads lips and has some residual hearing and did not use a sign-language interpreter during the trial. The prosecutor credits her with being more attentive during the trial than most jurors.
The man convicted in the trial, Scott Speer, claims his friend, Michael Barnett, fell off their boat in the middle of the night during poor weather. But prosecutors convinced the jury Speer had pushed his friend overboard. He’s now serving a four year sentence.
The Ohio Legal Rights Service is supporting Leow-Johannsen's right to serve on the jury along with the National Association of the Deaf and the Ability Center of Greater Toledo.
