Court Opinion

ID: 9664498
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 00:19:54.803518+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:15:06.679281
License: Public Domain

SHIRLEY S. ABRAHAMSON, J.
(concurring). I agree that the decision of the court of appeals should be reversed and the circuit court's sentencing judgment should be affirmed.
Section 971.09 provides for combining proceedings in two or more counties when the defendant enters , a guilty plea to all charges. As a result of this opinion the statutory requirement of a guilty plea to each charge is satisfied (1) by a not guilty plea to a charge if the defendant is tried and convicted of the charge (majority op. at 501), and (2) by a plea of no contest to a charge (majority op. note 6).
Furthermore, as a result of this opinion and our opinion in Peterson v. State, 43 Wis. 2d 370, 195 N.W.2d 837 (1972), the procedure set forth in sec. 971.09 need not be followed. In this case, contrary to sec. 971.09, the defendant's application to combine proceedings was executed in Outagamie county after the Waupaca county district attorney consented to the defendant's entry of a plea of guilty in Outagamie county. The Waupaca district attorney never consented to the defendant's entering a no contest plea. The Outagamie county district attorney failed to file, as required by sec. 971.09, an *517amended information listing all charges and failed to send, as required by sec. 971.09, an amended information to the Waupaca county district attorney before the latter executed his consent.
I suspect that the procedural requirements of sec. 971.09 are not met in a substantial number of cases. See, e.g., State v. Tatzel, No. 90-2178-CR-NM unpublished slip op. (Wis. Ct. App. Dec. 28,1990). Perhaps the procedural steps set forth in sec. 971.09 are impractical.
Because sec. 971.09 no longer means what it says or says what it means, I suggest the legislature (secs. 13.83, 13.93(2)(d), Stats. 1987-88) or the judicial council might wish to examine sec. .971.09 for possible revision.