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On Point is a judicial analysis blog written by members of the Wisconsin State Public Defenders. It includes cases from the Wisconsin Court of Appeals, Supreme Court of Wisconsin, and the Supreme Court of the United States.
§ 125.075(1), Procuring Alcohol for Minor Resulting in Death – Element of Scienter
State v. Ronald L. Wille, 2007 WI App 27, PFR filed 2/28/07
For Wille: Jerome A. Maeder, Benjamin Welch
Issue: Whether the scienter element of § 125.075(1) requires proof that the defendant know that a particular individual is under the legal drinking age.
Holding:
¶11 Wille makes much of the fact that Wis. Stat. § 125.075(1) refers several times to the victim in the singular: “to a person under 18 years of age”;
§ 125.075(1), Procuring Alcohol for Minor Resulting in Death – Sufficiency of Evidence
State v. Ronald L. Wille, 2007 WI App 27, PFR filed 2/28/07
For Wille: Jerome A. Maeder, Benjamin Welch
Issue: Whether the evidence was sufficient under § 125.075(1) to show that the defendant had the underage victim had consumed alcohol provided by the defendant at a party for which the defendant supplied beer and sold red cups for the purpose of obtaining the beer (the victim became intoxicated and later died in a traffic accident after leaving the party).
§ 125.075(1), Procuring Alcohol for Minor Resulting in Death – Elements – State Need not Prove Victim’s Level of Intoxication
State v. Ronald L. Wille, 2007 WI App 27, PFR filed 2/28/07
For Wille: Jerome A. Maeder, Benjamin Welch
Issue/Holding:
¶31 … The State was under no obligation to establish the level of alcohol in Meshak’s blood at the time of the accident, or even to prove that he was intoxicated to the degree required for a conviction under Wis. Stat. § 346.63 (“Operating under influence of intoxicant or other drug”).
§ 125.075(1), Procuring Alcohol for Minor Resulting in Death – Jury Instructions: Causation
State v. Ronald L. Wille, 2007 WI App 27, PFR filed 2/28/07
For Wille: Jerome A. Maeder, Benjamin Welch
Issue/Holding:
¶24 Wille claims the trial court erred in instructing jurors that, to find Wille guilty of the charged crime, Meshak’s consumption of alcohol provided by Wille was required to be “a” substantial factor in causing Meshak’s death, instead of “the” substantial factor, as Wille requested.
Contempt — Remedial, § 785.04(1) – Basis for Tuberculosis-Treatment Confinement
City of Milwaukee v. Ruby Washington, 2007 WI 104, affirming, 2006 WI App 99
For Washington: Wm. Tyroler, SPD, Milwaukee Appellate; Karl Otto Rohlich, SPD, Milwaukee Mental Health
Amicus: Colleen Ball, ACLU
Issue/Holding:
¶66 Moreover, we agree with Washington that remedial contempt was not an appropriate sanction in this case. A contemnor may be imprisoned “only so long as the person is committing the contempt of court.”
Guilty Pleas – Post-Sentencing Plea Withdrawal: Grounds — Coercion: Defendant’s Pregnancy
State v. Monika S. Lackershire, 2007 WI 74, affirming (this holding of) 2005 WI App 265
For Lackershire: Steven P. Weiss, SPD, Madison Appellate
Issue/Holding:
¶62 Finally, we consider Lackershire’s argument that her plea was involuntary because she feared that the stress of trial would affect her pregnancy. …
…
¶64 Lackershire has raised no plausible argument that her plea was legally coerced.
Detainers – Interstate Agreement on Detainers – Generally
State ex rel Frederick Lee Pharm v. Bartow, 2007 WI 13, affirming 2005 WI App 215
For Pharm: Jon G. Furlow, Nia Enemuch-Trammell, Roisin H. Bell (Pro Bono Project)
Issue/Holding:
¶14 The IAD is an interstate compact that prescribes “procedures by which a member State may obtain for trial a prisoner incarcerated in another member jurisdiction and by which the prisoner may demand the speedy disposition of certain charges pending against him in another jurisdiction.”
Detainers – Interstate Agreement on Detainers – Inapplicable to Parole
State ex rel Frederick Lee Pharm v. Bartow, 2007 WI 13, affirming 2005 WI App 215
For Pharm: Jon G. Furlow, Nia Enemuch-Trammell,Roisin H. Bell (Pro Bono)
Issue/Holding: The IAD applies only during “imprisonment,” and is therefore inapplicable to “parole”:
¶25 Pharm also argues that his Nevada parole is “imprisonment,” as that term is used in the IAD. Imprisonment is not defined in the IAD.
Guilty Pleas – Withdrawal of Plea — Sua Sponte, by Court – Unauthorized
State v. Frederick W. Rushing, 2007 WI App 227, PFR filed 10/25/07
For Rushing: Randall E. Paulson, SPD, Milwaukee Appellate
Issue/Holding:
¶12 As the circuit court recognized after the State brought its motion for reconsideration, circuit courts in Wisconsin may not, absent circumstances not present here, sua sponte vacate guilty pleas validly accepted. State v. Comstock, 168 Wis.
§ 902.01(2), Judicial Notice – Briefs Posted On-Line
State v. Ahern Ramel, 2007 WI App 271
For Ramel: Wm. Tyroler, SPD, Milwaukee Appellate
Issue/Holding: The court may take judicial notice of public records, including material found in briefs available on-line, ¶24 n. 9.
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