On Point

State v. S.T., 2021AP1278-1280, 10/26/21, District 1 (1-judge opinion, ineligible for publication); case activity

The circuit court terminated S.T.’s parental rights to three of her children after she brought one of them (a 5-month old twin) to the hospital with severe burns on his body. S.T. appealed arguing that during the grounds phase of the TPR trial the circuit court erroneously relied on irrelevant evidence–testimony regarding past  CHIPS and TPR proceedings that predated the births of these three children.

Attorney Keith Findley and colleagues have a new paper out. They examined cases in the postconviction context to determine how often prosecutors use their plea-bargaining power to preserve a conviction even when the conviction appears deeply flawed and the chances that the defendant is innocent are high. Guess what they found . . .

Given all the recent changes on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, SCOWstats has run a new Linguistic Inquiry Word Count software analysis of their opinions, including those from most of the new justices. It scores opinions on things like analytical thinking, speaking with clout, and so forth.  One interesting finding: Chief Justice Ziegler uses emotional words–negative […]

This week SCOTUS granted review on two cases involving Native American sovereignty. It also issued two summary rulings (without briefing or argument) that reversed federal appeals court decisions that had denied qualified immunity to police officers accused of using excessive force. In other words, SCOTUS summarily ruled for the police. Read more here.

State v. X.S., 2021AP419, review of an unpublished court of appeals opinion, granted 10/18/21, case activity

Issues:

1. Whether the court of appeals erroneously exercised its discretion in denying “Xander’s” motion for reconsideration less than 24 hours after it was filed without any explanation?

2. Whether a juvenile who stipulates to the prosecutive merit of a delinquency petition is estopped from presenting any evidence to contradict factual averments in the petition even when those facts do not negate probable cause for the charged offense?

3. Whether the court of appeals erroneously applied the discretionary standard of review?

That is the subject of today’s Immigration Professors’ blog post, which reports that the 2nd Circuit recently addressed the issue and links to a lengthy law306.com article highlighting a split among the circuits.  Apparently, the 4th, 5th, and 8th Circuits hold that undocumented immigrants are not included in “the people” of the Second Amendment.

That’s what Berkeley, California did. Read about the measure and its impact in this article from The Atlantic.

State v. William C. MacDonald, 2020AP605-CR, 10/14/21, District 4 (not recommended for publication); case activity (including briefs)

Section 973.042(2) mandates a $500 surcharge for each image “associated with the crime” of possession of child pornography. The State charged MacDonald with 10 counts of possessing child porn. He pled “no contest” to a single charge. The State dismissed and read in 9 charges at sentencing. It then requested a $5,000 surcharge for the 10 images supporting the conceded and read-in charges. But it also requested (and received) $45,000 for MacDonald’s possession of an additional 90 images for which he was not charged.

State v. Kyle M. Kleinschmidt, 2020AP881-Cr, 10/13/21, District 3 (1-judge opinion; ineligible for publication); case activity (including briefs)

Kleinschmidt’s vehicle had two brake lights in good working order, but it also had a high-mount brake light that was not working.  An officer stopped him due to the defective light and established that he was operating a vehicle while his license was revoked.  Kleinschmidt argues that the officer, who based the stop on §347.14(1), lacked reasonable suspicion. Plus the correct law, § TRANS 305.15 (re high mounted brake lights), exceeds the authority granted in §347.15 and is thus invalid.

A new study by the Sentencing Project finds that nationally “one in 81 Black adults per 100,000 in the U.S. is serving time in state prison. Wisconsin leads the nation in Black imprisonment rates; one of every 36 Black Wisconsinites is in prison.” The study also examines incarceration rates for Latinx individuals. If you’re thinking “deja vu,” consider this data point: When prisons are described as being “more black,” people are more supportive of harsh policies that contribute to the disparity.