by admin
on January 10, 2017
Review of an unpublished court of appeals decision; affirmed 2017 WI 76, case activity (including briefs)
Issues (from petition for review):
Law enforcement officers arrested Kenneth Asboth at a private storage facility. The car he had been driving was parked in the lane between rows of storage units, in front Mr. Asboth’s leased unit. The officers seized the car, towed it to a police station, and searched it.
- Must a community-caretaker impoundment of a vehicle be governed by “standard criteria” limiting the discretion of law enforcement officers and, if so, was the impoundment here made in accord with such criteria?
- Was the impoundment here a valid community caretaker action where the vehicle was parked at a private storage facility? Relatedly, does the Constitution require the state to show that a community caretaker impoundment and search is not a pretext concealing criminal investigatory motives?
[continue reading…]
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by admin
on January 10, 2017
Seriously. See the USA Today article here.
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by admin
on January 10, 2017
The ABA Journal recently ran an in-depth article about public defender lawsuits over inadequate funding. At least 5 of those lawsuits achieved successful results. Six are pending, and more lawsuits are expected. Read the article here.
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by admin
on January 10, 2017
In November, On Point posted on The Amicus Machine, a study of amicus briefs filed in SCOTUS. Today’s edition of SCOWstats reports on amicus briefs in SCOW: how many are filed, who is filing them, and do they influence the discussion of the issues. Click SCOWstats to learn more.
Note that for criminal appeals Attorney Rob Henak (on behalf of WACDL) and the Remington Center are among SCOW’s “best friends” in that they file a fair number of amicus briefs and the justices engage them. Nice work!
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by admin
on January 9, 2017
Seifert v. Balink, 2017 WI 2,1/6/17, affirming a published court of appeals opinion; case activity (including briefs)
It’s true. SCOW’s first decision on §907.02(1), which adopted the Daubert test for the admissibility of expert testimony is 134 pages long and includes 4 separate opinions, but don’t despair. It’s not the mess you imagine. Reading the first 3 opinions by Abrahamson (joined by A.W. Bradley), Ziegler (solo) and Gableman (joined by Roggensack) feels like the kids’ game “spot the difference between these pictures.” They are more alike than different. You might even wonder why the 5 of them couldn’t just sign on to 1 majority opinion. Or you might not. Bottom line: 5 justices affirmed the admission of a medical doctor’s expert testimony even though it was based on his personal experience, not science. [continue reading…]
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by admin
on January 4, 2017
State v. Damion L. Brown, 2015AP2029-CR, 1/4/2017, District 1 (not recommended for publication); case activity (including briefs)
Damion Brown’s roommate consented to a search of their apartment after being arrested on suspicion of dealing heroin. Brown raises three challenges to the voluntariness and validity of that consent. [continue reading…]
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by admin
on January 4, 2017
There is new research to support a racial bias challenge to COMPAS. You may recall that last spring Pro Publica studied COMPAS scores for some 10,000 people arrested for crimes in Broward County, Florida and published its results. It found that black defendants were twice as likely to be incorrectly labeled as higher risk to reoffend than white defendants. And white defendants labeled low risk were far more likely to end up being charged with new offenses than blacks with comparably low COMPAS risk scores. [continue reading…]
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by admin
on January 2, 2017
Democratic Party of Wisconsin v. Wisconsin Department of Justice, 2016 WI 100, 12/28/16, reversing a summary disposition of the court of appeals; case activity (including briefs)
Before the November 2014 election, the Democratic Party of Wisconsin filed an open records request for videos of two training presentations made by Brad Schimel, the DA running for Attorney General. The Department of Justice denied the request, but a circuit judge ordered the videos to be released, and the court of appeals affirmed that order. In an opinion that will arguably enhance the ability of prosecutors to deny release of their records—or, as the dissent aptly describes it, will dim or even shut out some of the light meant to be shed by Wisconsin’s “Sunshine Law”—a majority of the supreme court holds the videos don’t have to be released. [continue reading…]
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