Dane County DHS v. J.D., 2015AP1800, District 4, 11/19/2015 (one-judge decision; ineligible for publication); case activity One of the statutory grounds for a finding of unfitness leading to termination of parental rights is the court-ordered denial of placement or visitation for at least one year. Wis. Stat. § 48.415(4). In Dane County DHS v. P. P., 2005 WI… Read more
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At last week’s annual State Public Defender conference Barry Scheck, co-founder of the Innocence Project, did a presentation about new challenges to forensic science evidence that could be brought using Wisconsin’s recently adopted changes to the rules governing expert opinion testimony. He noted that so-called “pattern matching” analyses—which involve comparison of, for example, fingerprints, hair, bite marks… Read more
Vernard Crockett v. Kim Butler, 7th Circuit Court of Appeals Case No. 14-2320, 11/17/15 Crockett procedurally defaulted his insufficient evidence and confrontation clause claims by failing to preserve the claims at various stages of his direct appeals in state court. In his state court appeal of his murder and attempted armed robbery convictions Crockett argued there was insufficient evidence to… Read more
Bet you think the answer is obvious–it’s Abrahamson, right? Wrong! Click SCOWstats.com for the answer. While you’re at it, note the startling difference between how Sixth-Amendment arguments fare in SCOW compared with Fourth-Amendment arguments. Orin Kerr of Volokh Conspiracy fame recently did a post on the chances of a Fourth Amendment argument winning in SCOTUS… Read more
Review of a published court of appeals decision; case activity (including briefs) In this case the supreme court will address an important issue about the offense of using a computer to facilitate a child sex crime, § 948.075(1r). The court of appeals granted McKellips a new trial on a charge under that statute, holding the jury was erroneously… Read more
State v. Patrick K. Kozel, 2015AP656-CR, District 4, 11/12/15 (one-judge decision; ineligible for publication), petition for review granted 3/7/16, reversed, 2017 WI 3; case activity (including briefs) The results of a blood draw done by an EMT after Kozel was arrested for OWI were inadmissible because the State failed to prove that the blood draw… Read more
State v. N.J., 2015AP1477 & 2015AP1478, District 1, 11/12/15 (one-judge decision; ineligible for publication); case activity The order terminating N.J.’s parental rights based on her failure to assume parental responsibility under § 48.415(6) was not invalidated by any failures by the Milwaukee Child Welfare Bureau to make reasonable efforts to reunite N.J. with her two… Read more
Seifert v. Balink, 2015 WI App 59, petition for review granted 11/4/15; affirmed, 2017 WI 2; case activity (including briefs) While this case involves a medical malpractice claim rather than an issue of criminal law, On Point thought it worth noting because it will be the first time the Wisconsin Supreme Court will address the admissibility of expert… Read more
