On Point: 21. Guilty pleas

State v. Everardo A. Lopez, 2001 WI App 265
For Lopez: Margaret A. Maroney, SPD, Madison Appellate

Issue: Whether plea withdrawal is the appropriate remedy where the record contains no evidence that Lopez understood all elements of the offense

Holding:

¶22. The proper remedy upon determining that the State failed to establish that Lopez understood the elements of the offense with which he was charged when he entered his no contest plea is to remand the case to permit Lopez to withdraw his plea. 

State v. Everardo A. Lopez, 2001 WI App 265
For Lopez: Margaret A. Maroney, SPD, Madison Appellate

Issue: Whether Lopez made a prima facie showing that the plea colloquy was inadequate.

Holding: The Spanish-speaking Lopez had problems, acknowledged by the trial court, communicating with his interpreter and necessitating a continuance of the plea hearing. At neither the aborted plea hearing or the subsequent one at which the plea was accepted did the trial court determine,

State v. Alfredo Ramirez, 2001 WI App 158, PFR filed 7/11/01
For Ramirez: Elizabeth A. Cavendish-Sosinski

Issue: Whether Ramirez’s guilty plea waived an ex post facto challenge to the charged offense.

Holding: ¶4 n. 4:

We could invoke the guilty plea/waiver rule against Ramirez since he pled guilty to the charge after the trial court rejected his constitutional challenge. See State v.

State v. James G. Langenbach, 2001 WI App 222
For Langenbach: Patrick M. Donnelly, SPD, Madison Appellate

Issue: Whether the state may call a defendant to testify, as an adverse witness, at Phase II of an NGI trial, following Phase I guilty plea.

Holding: A guilty plea doesn’t necessarily result in loss of fifth amendment rights: The privilege continues at least until sentencing, ¶9; moreover, the privilege continues during the direct appeal,

State v. Michael F. Howard, 2001 WI App 137, 630 N.W.2d 244

Issue: Whether the prosecutor breached a plea bargain calling for a maximum recommendation on multiple counts of concurrent terms of 25 years in prison, when the actual recommendation was for a total of 25 years but included consecutive terms.

Holding:

¶18 Undoubtedly, one of the most crucial issues in a plea agreement is the recommendation concerning length of time to be served on each count.

State v. Dalvell Richardson, 2001 WI App 152
For Richardson: Richard D. Martin, SPD, Milwaukee Appellate

Issue: Whether the prosecutor breached a plea agreement “to leave the length of the incarceration entirely up to the Court, [without] any specific numerical type of recommendation” with allocution that clearly implied a request for a lengthy term.

Holding: The prosecutor’s comments (to the effect that this was one of the most serious cases the prosecutor had handled) didn’t breach an agreement to recommend incarceration without specifying length:

¶11.

State v. Michael F. Howard, 2001 WI App 137, 630 N.W.2d 244

Issue: Whether the remedy for a plea bargain breach should be to vacate the plea or to resentence on the plea.

Holding:

¶36 Our reading of Bangert and Smith leads us to conclude that the remedies and procedures outlined in Santobello are consistent with Wisconsin law. Specifically, the sentencing court has discretion to determine the appropriate remedy for a breach.

State v. Michael F. Howard, 2001 WI App 137

Issue/Holding: Failure to object to plea bargain breach waives the issue, leaving ineffective assistance of counsel the only mechanism for raising it. ¶21.

Also see, State v. Harold Merryfield, 229 Wis.2d 52, 598 N.W.2d 251 (Ct. App. 1999) (asserted plea bargain violation held waived, under State v. Smith, 153 Wis. 2d 739, 451 N.W.2d 794 (Ct.

State v. Brady T. Terrill, 2001 WI App 70, 242 Wis. 2d 415, 625 N.W.2d 353
For Terrill: Eileen Hirsch, SPD, Madison Appellate.

Issue: Whether the trial court properly reconsidered a deferred-acceptance agreement (which would have allowed the defendant to avoid conviction upon successful completion of supervision), entering judgement of conviction after deeming the offense more serious than originally thought.

Holding:

¶24. If the State had asked the circuit court to enter judgment on the felony after viewing the videotape,

State v. John D. Williams, 2001 WI App 7, 241 Wis. 2d 1, 624 N.W.2d 164, affirmed without discussing this issue, 2002 WI 1
For Williams: John A. Pray

Issue: Whether the defendant properly preserved objection to a prosecutorial breach of plea bargain.

Holding: ¶13:

(T)he trial court recognized it as an objection and initially agreed with Williams’s attorney. The objection was sufficient.