I’m
very happy that this article will be published in a California
journal, as Cali stands in stark
contrast to Wisconsin when it
comes to prelims. My favorite example is
The People of California v. Frank Carson, et al., where a California prosecutor charged
multiple defendants (including a prominent criminal defense lawyer, Frank
Carson, his wife and daughter, two local business owners, and, most bizarrely, several
police officers) with the murder of a petty scrap-metal thief.
In the
Carson, et al. case,
the district attorney’s unhinged conspiracy theory led its prosecutorial crazy
train clear off the rails of sanity. The
prelim, though, did its job and saved the day for the defendants. The hearing took months to
complete and some defendants had their entire case dismissed, others won dismissal
of their murder charge, and others had their bail dramatically reduced. (All defendants who had any charges
remaining, post-prelim, were ultimately acquitted at jury trial or the
prosecutor finally saw the light and dismissed their charges.)
But
in Wisconsin, things are quite
different. In stark contrast to
California’s prelim—a hearing with some teeth that can actually prevent
baseless prosecutions—Wisconsin’s prelim and surrounding activities (such as the
appearances, arraignment, and the scheduling of future court dates) have literally
been completed in five minutes! Worse yet, the result is a foregone conclusion, as the defendant has a near zero (if not literally zero) chance of winning or gaining any other benefit from the hearing. It’s
an absolute joke. Yes, Wisconsin
prosecutors and judges have made a laughing stock of our state’s criminal
procedure—and I explain it all in my new article.
After
the jump, you can read my favorite quote from the article, as well as the article’s
abstract. At the end of this post is a
link to the pre-publication draft of the full article.