Milwaukee Criminal Defense Law Blog

At stake is our basic understanding of the difference between right and wrong. If someone commits a wrongful act but, due to a mental illness or defect, wasn't able to recognize that what they were doing was wrong, we don't consider them to have committed a crime.

The same goes for people who are completely unable to conform their behavior to the law. If their mental illness or defect meant that they couldn't keep themselves from breaking the law, they have traditionally been considered not guilty.

In 2009, the National Academy of Sciences issued a blockbuster report on the state of the science in forensic investigation. That report concluded that, "with the exception of nuclear DNA analysis ... no forensic method has been rigorously shown to have the capacity to consistently, and with a high degree of certainty, demonstrate a connection between evidence and a specific individual or source."

On this blog, we've discussed the fact that many common forensic techniques are not supported by science. That includes techniques that prosecutors and police have long relied on, such as drug field tests, bite mark comparison, blood spatter analysis, image comparison, microscopic hair comparison, ballistics, lie detector tests and more.

When Adam N. was arrested for exposing himself to a neighbor, it was hard to understand it as a sex crime. Adam is 32 but functions at the level of a 10-year-old. His mother says that the neighbor was actually abusing Adam and coerced him to expose himself. Adam pled guilty, however, and was sentenced to two years of probation and 10 years on the sex offender registry.

Since Adam functions at such a low level, however, he has a hard time understanding and complying with the restrictions of his sentence. He was required to move to a new residence because his home was too near the alleged victim's. That meant the entire family had to move because Adam can't live on his own. Finding a home that complied with the sex offender restrictions cost the family $150,000.

According to the bipartisan nonprofit the Prison Policy Initiative, a third of all Wisconsin county jail inmates between 2009 and 2013 were locked up solely because they couldn't afford a low cash bail. In other words, they're behind bars before having been convicted of anything.

In fact, people who are held in jail prior to trial make up the fastest growing population in Wisconsin's jails. Nationwide, approximate 75% of people held in local jails have yet to be convicted of any crime.