State v. Alvin James Jemison, Jr., 2021AP2207-CR, 7/18/23, District 1 (not recommended for publication); case activity (including briefs) After a jury trial, Jemison was convicted of second-degree sexual assault of an unconscious person (Teresa) as a repeater – serious sex crime and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of release to extended supervision. See Wis… Read more
5. Plain error
State v. Jeffrey L. Blabaum, 2022AP111, 11/10/2022, District 4 (one-judge decision; ineligible for publication); case activity (including briefs) Blabaum texted his ex and told her to meet him in Dodgeville to retrieve a few personal items she’d left behind when she moved out of the home they shared in Tennessee. He also sent a picture… Read more
Rock County v. H.V., 2021AP1760-FT, 1/13/22, District 4 (1-judge opinion, ineligible for publication); case activity This appeal concerns a recurring problem in Chapter 51 cases: the lack of objection to damaging hearsay at the final hearing. If the appellate lawyer raises ineffective assistance of counsel in the circuit court, the case will become moot before… Read more
State v. Thomas A. Nelson, 2021 WI App 2; 12/9/20, District 2; case activity (including briefs). This split court of appeals opinion, which is recommended for publication, has “petition granted” written all over it. Crawford v. Washington, 541 U.S. 36, 68 (2004) held that a trial court violates a defendant’s right to confrontation when it… Read more
State v. John A. Augoki, 2016AP231-CR, 4/25/17, District 1 (not recommended for publication); case activity (including briefs) Augoki raises two claims on appeal of his jury-trial conviction of three sexual assaults: that the jury heard other-acts evidence it should hot have heard (raised here as plain error) and that the court unconstitutionally limited his cross-examination of a… Read more
Henderson v. United States, USSC No. 11-9307, reversing 646 F.3d 223 (5th Cir. 2011) When is plain really plain? That’s the plain and simple issue in this case. During trial, the district court decided a substantive legal question against the defendant. But while the case was on direct appeal, SCOTUS, in a separate case, settled… Read more
State v. Marvin L. Beauchamp, 2011 WI 27, affirming 2010 WI App 42; for Beauchamp: Craig S. Powell; case activity Confrontation – Dying Declaration, § 908.045(3) ¶34 We therefore, like every state court that has considered the dying declaration exception since Crawford, take a position consistent with the language of Crawford and Giles and decline… Read more
State v. Erik B. Hudson, 2010AP000780-CR, District 3, 8/10/10 court of appeals decision (1-judge, not for publication); for Hudson: George S.Pappas, Jr.; BiC; Resp. While “better practice” would have been to strike and give a curative instruction following a witness’s non-responsive testimony, the trial court’s failure to do so wasn’t plain error… Read more