The goal of the recently formed Wisconsin Criminal Justice Study Commission is to identify and help correct problems in the Wisconsin criminal justice system. The commission, comprising prosecutors, police, defense attorneys, judges, victim's advocates, and community leaders, will study criminal justice reforms aimed at protecting the innocent and convicting the guilty.
Wisconsin Lawyer
Vol. 78, No. 11, November
2005
Legal News & Trends
New commission continues criminal justice reform
The goal of the recently formed Wisconsin Criminal Justice Study
Commission is to identify and help correct problems in the Wisconsin
criminal justice system. The commission, comprising prosecutors, police,
defense attorneys, judges, victim's advocates, and community leaders,
will study criminal justice reforms aimed at protecting the innocent and
convicting the guilty. The 27-member commission, chaired by Milwaukee
County Circuit Court Judge Michael Malmstadt, is sponsored by the State
Bar, the Department of Justice, Marquette Law School, and U.W. Law
School.
Since late 2002, Wisconsin has improved the criminal justice system's
ability to avoid convicting the innocent and justly convict the guilty.
Entities statewide, with varying roles and interests in the criminal
justice system, have contributed to the effort, and the commission will
build on those efforts. In recent months, the Wisconsin Supreme Court,
the state Legislature, and the state Attorney General have addressed
important reforms to prevent wrongful convictions, including examining
issues such as eyewitness identification procedures and electronic
recording of interrogations.
At its initial meeting in August, the commission identified several
possible issues for its consideration, including: false confessions and
interrogation techniques; training, access to, and funding of defense
counsel; tunnel vision (in which system actors across the criminal
justice system focus on one view of a case to the exclusion of other
views); jailhouse informant testimony; funding for law enforcement
implementation of electronic recording; the role of race and ethnicity
in wrongful convictions; discovery rules; and methods of helping former
defendants in the criminal justice system and individuals who have been
exonerated reenter society
The next meeting coincides with the Wisconsin Law Review
symposium, "Preventing Wrongful Convictions: Re-examining Fundamental
Principles of Criminal Law to Protect the Innocent" on Nov. 18-19.
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