Judge Louis B. Butler, Jr. on Criminal Justice
From Judgepedia
- Justice Louis Butler dissented from the majority opinion, instead concluding that a criminal defendant who was convicted by a jury of being selling illegal narcotics was entitled to a new trial, because it was mentioned during the trial that a recipient of the illegal narcotics had died of a drug overdose from their ingestion, and that this information likely had an unduly prejudicial effect on the jury.
- Justice Butler authored the majority opinion, which concluded, over the vigorous dissents of Justices John P. Wilcox and David T. Prosser, that The Fourth Amendment to the Wisconsin Constitution provided greater protection to criminal defendants than does the identically worded Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. In so holding the Majority found that a bloody sweatshirt was inadmissible as evidence in a murder case because the defendant told police officers of its location prior to being read his Miranda rights.
- Justice Butler concurred in the majority opinion, and wrote a separate concurring opinion, noting that a prisoner was entitled to raise the argument that he had recieved ineffective assistance of counsel at his trail sixteen (16) years after that trial was over.
