Washington v. Jackson (Majority)
Annotate this CaseIn 2017, John Jackson Sr. was charged with assault in the second degree, domestic violence, for strangling his fiancee. At every court appearance, Jackson was forced to wear some form of restraints pursuant to jail policy. The trial court did not engage in any individualized determination of whether restraints were necessary for courtroom safety but, instead, filed a consolidated opinion adopting the jail policy for all superior court appearances for all incarcerated defendants. After a jury found Jackson guilty, he appealed, arguing that his constitutional right to due process was violated for being forced to wear restraints without an individualized inquiry into their necessity. The Court of Appeals concurred with this argument, but held the violation was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. With respect to the latter portion of the appellate court's holding, the Washington Supreme Court revered, finding the State did not prove the harmlessness of the shackling, and did not show the error to be harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. The matter was remanded for a new trial with instructions that at all stages of the proceedings, the trial court make an individualized inquiry into whether shackels or restraints were necessary.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.