State v. John R. Brott, 2021AP2001, 8/30/23, District 2 (recommended for publication); case activity (including briefs) In 2016, the court of appeals held that a sentencing court must give effect to the mandatory minimum for possession of child pornography: a bifurcated sentence including three years of initial confinement. The statute’s language, the court said, precludes… Read more
1. Mandatory minimum
State v. Lynne M. Shirikian, 2023 WI App 13; case activity (including briefs) Shirikian pleaded to OWI as a fifth offense. Back in 2019, the legislature amended the statutes to create a both a presumptive and a mandatory minimum sentence for OWI 5th and OWI 6th. See 2019 Wis. Act 106; Wis. Stat. § 346.65(2)(am)5… Read more
State v. Michael James Brehm, 2020AP266, 6/29/21, District 1 (not recommended for publication); case activity Brehm was arrested after a neighbor called 911 to report that he was firing a gun out his window into the air. Police recovered a gun and Brehm admitted to the shooting. He eventually pleaded guilty to being a felon… Read more
State v. Jack B. Gramza, 2020 WI App 81; case activity (including briefs) If an inmate serving the initial confinement (IC) portion of a bifurcated sentence completes the Substance Abuse Program (SAP), § 302.05(3)(c)2. mandates that the sentencing court “shall” modify the inmate’s sentence by converting the remaining period of IC to extended supervision (ES)… Read more
Charging as Sentencing, a recent article by Professor Donald Dripps at the University of San Diego Law School, contends that they are. Consider the possibilities… Read more
Tumblr qualifies as an “identified citizen informant,” and sec. 939.617(2) is not void for vagueness
State v. Samuel Silverstein, 2017 WI App 64; case activity (including briefs) Pursuant to a warrant, police searched Silverstein’s computer for child porn. The “informer” was Tumblr, which is required by federal law to report suspected child pornography to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Silverstein challenged the warrant as well as the mandatory… Read more
State v. Markus S. Holcomb, 2016 WI App 70; case activity (including briefs) “While sentence diagramming may be the bane of fifth graders everywhere, it is the trick of the trade in statutory construction.” Slip op. ¶9. “Punctuation too is important. . . . It can be the difference between ‘Let’s eat, Grandma!’ and ‘Let’s… Read more
State v. Antonio D. Barbeau, 2016 WI App 51; case activity (including briefs) Barbeau killed his great-grandmother when he was 14 years old, and eventually pled no contest to first-degree intentional homicide, which carries an automatic life sentence. When imposing such a sentence, the court must make a decision as to extended supervision: it can either… Read more
