Opinion ID: 1613068
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Alleged Denial of a Fair Trial Due to Acts of Trial Counsel.

Text: On the issue of identity the police showed complainant only two men from whom to identify her assailantdefendant and a detective whom she knew. Complainant testified she did not think she could have identified defendant if he had dressed differently. Janet Wingad and her mother did not flatly deny that defendant was at their home at the time of the attempted rape, but stated that they could not recall the facts well enough to enable them to testify one way or the other on this point. On the basis of these facts defendant contends that the issue of whether defendant was the assailant of complainant was close. Proceeding on this hypothesis defendant argues that his trial counsel committed a serious blunder in introducing into evidence defendant's long prior criminal record and misdeeds as a child which may well have tipped the scales in causing the jury to conclude that defendant was the man who committed the acts testified to by complainant. Defendant took the stand in his own defense and trial counsel by his questioning brought out these facts: When defendant was nine years old he set fire to a furniture factory in Eau Claire and another one at some stables in which a Percheron horse perished in the blaze. As a result defendant was sent to Mendota State Hospital in September, 1948. The next year, when ten years old, he was transferred to Southern Colony at Union Grove. In September, 1954, he was taken to the Wisconsin Diagnostic Center and given tests, and in October, 1954, was returned to Southern Colony from which he later ran away. He was taken back to that institution and in October, 1955, was transferred to Central State Hospital at Waupun. At age sixteen defendant was released from Central State Hospital and went to live in a foster home in Milwaukee. He was unhappy there and in two weeks returned to Central State Hospital. After a short time he was placed in a foster home in Madison where he stayed six months. He then broke into the Historical Society Museum and stole some guns and was taken back to Central State Hospital. On November 27, 1961, he was discharged from there. Defendant went to Madison, obtained employment, married and then was discharged from his employment because of his prior bad record, and went on welfare relief. While on relief he broke into an apartment and stole some money and also struck a lady on the street and took her purse. This resulted in his being placed in Mendota State Hospital, but eventually he was placed on probation. His probation was revoked for misconduct and he was sentenced to two years in Green Bay Reformatory. He was released on October 22, 1963, and went to Eau Claire. There he stole some pigeons and was again sentenced to the reformatory for six months. After his release he stole some money from a woman in a car in Eau Claire and pleaded guilty to that charge, but the record is silent as to the sentence imposed. Defendant now criticizes trial counsel for persisting in the insanity and feebleminded defense and introducing the foregoing prejudicial evidence in the record in furtherance of that defense in face of the overwhelming evidence that defendant was sane and not feebleminded. The trial court had appointed two psychiatrists to examine defendant before trial and they testified defendant was neither insane nor feebleminded. Defendant testified he considered himself sane. The record reveals that defendant's trial counsel undertook conscientious cross-examination of the state's witnesses and especially of the complainant. In fact, counsel on appeal relies heavily on the testimony that trial counsel elicited from the complainant on cross-examination. The crux of the complaint, though, is that trial counsel's decision to plead defendant not guilty by reason of insanity, and to adduce testimony as to his long career in state hospitals and prisons in support thereof, was entirely without logic and had absolutely no redeeming merit. As noted in Pulaski v. State, [8] Often after trial, charges of incompetency are directed toward counsel because it appears other tactics than those chosen might have been more helpful to the accused. [9] This seems to be just such an objection to a tactic, and, even assuming that defendant's present view of tactics is the correct one, it would not seem, in light of the trial counsel's total performance, to satisfy the test of inadequacy, that this court has laid down, viz., Unless the representation of counsel is so inadequate and of such low competency as to amount to no representation, a new trial cannot be granted on that ground. [10] Furthermore, there would seem to be arguable merit in the trial counsel's tactic. His client had been positively identified by a complaining witness whose physical condition made her a highly sympathetic figure; his alibi witnesses had refused to verify his alibi; and he had a long record of mental disturbance and causally related violence. Under these circumstances, trial counsel might have found himself criticized by later appellate counsel if he had not done everything in his power to get an insanity acquittal. By the Court. Judgment and order affirmed. GORDON, J. ( concurring ). I concur with the court's holding. I also join in the court's opinion except insofar as it attempts to distinguish Oakley v. State (1964), 22 Wis. (2d) 298, 125 N. W. (2d) 657. Both in that case and in the case at bar there were aggressive and offensive acts which unmistakably evidenced an intent to rapeor, at the very least, acts which a jury was entitled to find showed such intent. In Oakley, this court labeled the defendant's conduct as gross, obscene, and highly reprehensible. (p. 309.) I am unable to accept the majority's effort to treat Mr. Oakley's atrocious actions as distinguishable from those of Mr. Le Barron. By trick, Mr. Oakley succeeded in entering the auto of a total stranger and drove her to a secluded place. Against her wishes and in spite of her tears he detained her for an hour. The prosecutrix, who weighed a mere 107 pounds, testified at the trial in that case that she was unable to get out of the car; however, she resisted him in all his advances. Mr. Oakley persisted in his demand for sexual intercourse with her even after he physically verified her assertion that she was menstruating at the time. He exposed his penis. His other nefarious conduct is fully outlined at pages 301-303 of this court's decision. The majority opinion in the case at bar points out that Mr. Oakley finally desisted from his attempt to have sexual intercourse with his victim. His ultimate failure to renew this endeavor cannot properly be construed to relieve him of the onus of his prior criminal conduct, nor should it now be utilized by the court to distinguish his intentions from those of Mr. Le Barron's; as Mr. Justice HALLOWS well stated in a dissent to the Oakley Case, at page 311: [T]hat the prosecutrix was successful in dissuading the defendant is not to his credit but to hers. In my view, the instant case only serves to demonstrate rather dramatically how erroneous was the holding in Oakley.