Court Opinion

ID: 9738536
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 19:55:49.271847+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:06.790770
License: Public Domain

SHIRLEY S. ABRAHAMSON, J.
(concurring). I write separately to stress the longstanding law in this state. Despite what the majority touts as the "mutuality of advantage" of plea agreements, circuit courts are required to scrutinize such arrangements closely. "Circuit courts in this state may not involve themselves in the plea agreement process and are not bound by any plea agreement between a prosecutor and a defendant. Before permitting a prosecutor to amend charges to allege a less serious offense and before accepting a defendant's guilty or no contest plea to the amended charges, the circuit court must satisfy itself that the amended charges fit the crime and that the amendments are in the public interest." State v. Comstock, 168 Wis. 2d 915, 927, 485 N.W.2d 354 (1992). "A circuit court has the power to accept or reject a plea agreement reducing or amending charges ...." Id., n.ll.
Furthermore, a circuit court cannot enter a plea of guilty coupled with claims of innocence "unless there is a factual basis for the plea and until the judge taking *868the plea has inquired into and sought to resolve the conflict between the waiver of trial and the claim of innocence." North Carolina v. Alford, 400 U.S. 25, 38 n.10 (1970).