If you haven’t heard, on December 18th Netflix released a new documentary series called Making a Murderer. The first season (10 one-hour parts) recounts the riveting story of Wisconsin’s own Steven Avery, a man who was imprisoned for sexual assault and attempted murder, and who was later exonerated. He filed a $36 million lawsuit against Manitowoc… Read more
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Public records have been in the press a lot lately. Think transitory records like, texts, emails or Facebook messages. Often it’s a court that decides whether or not Wisconsin’s public records law allows access to such information. In an interesting twist, a few of the final arbiters of the law–Wisconsin’s Supreme Court justices–recently received open records… Read more
Gregory Jean-Paul v. Timonty Douma, 7th Circuit Court of Appeals No. 14-3088, 12/31/15 The Wisconsin Court of Appeals reasonably concluded that Jean-Paul validly waived his right to appellate counsel based on the waiver form he signed and his correspondence with his appellate lawyer. Jean-Paul initially told his appellate lawyer he wanted to represent himself, but… Read more
United States v. Antonio West, 7th Circuit Court of Appeals Case No. 14-2514, 12/30/15 The trial court erroneously excluded expert evidence that West sought to admit regarding factors that made him susceptible to making an unreliable confession to a crime. West, a felon, confessed to possessing a firearm. He moved to suppress his statement arguing… Read more
Tempest Horsley v. Jessica Trame, 7th Circuit Court of Appeals Case No. 14-2846, 12/14/15 Illinois law requires a person over the age of 18 but under the age of 21 to get a parent’s or guardian signature on an application for a firearm owner’s identification (FOID) card, which is generally necessary to lawfully possess or… Read more
State v. Caroline D. Prieto, 2016 WI App 15; case activity (including briefs) Nearly three years after the defense demand, and a year after the first (of two) court orders to produce a witness list, the state still hadn’t done so. The circuit court’s response? No list, no witnesses. The state appeals and… The appellate… Read more
State v. Brian I. Harris, 2016 WI App 2, petition for review granted 4/6/16, affirmed 2017 WI 31; case activity (including briefs) Incriminating statements Harris made while he was in custody were admissible despite the lack of Miranda warnings because the statements were either sufficiently attenuated from the taint of police questioning or were not made in… Read more
New Richmond News v. City of New Richmond, 2015 WI 106, 12/18/15 (per curiam); case activity (including briefs) We take note of this decision not because of the issue presented (does the federal Drivers’ Privacy Protection Act restrict access to records that would otherwise be subject to inspection under Wisconsin’s open records law?) but because of what… Read more
