Supreme Court Numbers Debunk Koschnick Distortions about Crime Rulings

MADISON, Wis. — A painstaking analysis by One Wisconsin Now of more than 4,000 decisions made by the Wisconsin Supreme Court during the current term of Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson proves Jefferson County Judge Randy Koschnick has misrepresented Abrahamson’s record. A full accounting of her decision making shows the Chief Justice has supported the state’s position in cases involving crime and public safety 90 percent of the time.

“Two things become perfectly clear when you review the more than 4,000 decisions made by the Supreme Court during Justice Abrahamson’s current term regarding criminal behavior,” said Scot Ross, One Wisconsin Now Executive Director. “One, Abrahamson has sided against perpetrators of crime more than 90 percent of the time, and two, Randy Koschnick’s misrepresentation of her record raises serious doubts about his judicial ethics.”

Unlike Koschnick, who cherry-picked a small section of cases over the past 10 years, One Wisconsin Now reviewed more than 4,000 decisions about public safety and criminal conduct that were made by the Wisconsin Supreme Court since August 1999. This exhaustive, but more accurate, representative data review includes the following decisions made by the Supreme Court involving crime:

• Criminal case opinions of the Wisconsin Supreme Court: Cases where the Supreme Court heard arguments and formally ruled in a case
• Chapter 980 Cases: Civil cases involving the commitment of sexually violent persons
• Petitions to the Supreme Court: the vast majority of decisions made by the court on both criminal and Ch. 980 commitments are made during the petition process.

By ignoring thousands of decisions made by Justice Abrahamson and the Court upholding the state’s position, as opposed to the defendant’s position, Koschnick has shown a disturbing lack of knowledge about the Court’s function, or is engaging in deliberate distortions.

“When criminals ask for their cases to be reviewed by the Supreme Court, it’s up to the Justices to decide whether these cases have merit,” said Ross. “Under Randy Koschnick’s method, he’d have you judge an NFL referee only on the one or two calls that get reviewed by the replay booth and not the hundreds of calls made throughout the whole game.”