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WISCONSIN CRIME & JUSTICE
DEFENDING PEOPLE IN THE HEARTLAND OF AMERICA

Craig Mastantuono spoke this weekend at Marquette University Law School's Annual Criminal Law Conference, a seminar for criminal justice lawyers from both the prosecution and defense sides of the aisle.

An analysis of "fighting words" makes the headlines today, with the Wisconsin Court of Appeals overturning a disorderly conduct conviction resulting from the defendant's profanity-laced Facebook post about the police in the Village of Arena, Iowa County, Wisconsin.

When a police officer stops a car for what he says is a law violation, does he need to be right? Or can he be wrong on the law, but still pass muster with reviewing courts?

Craig Mastantuono is at the Wisconsin State Public Defender Trial Skills Academy this week, helping other (mostly beginning) lawyers learn to try cases.

A federal agency – the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) – published a new study that shows there is no increased risk of an accident when a driver smokes weed prior to driving when adjusted for age, gender, ethnicity, and alcohol concentration.

As the heroin epidemic sweeps through communities across the country, it takes countless young lives with it, either through death or incarceration. Unfortunately, in our own practice, we've seen both, and every local community is talking about how this happened.

When it comes to criminal justice, Wisconsin is reacting instead of acting, coming slowly to innovation, and turning a blind eye to racial equality when meting out punishment.

An interesting story appears in today's (11/30/14) Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, about two men who killed others while driving recklessly and under the influence of intoxicants, and their respective unequal treatment serving prison sentences in Wisconsin.

Black Life is Cheaper. Or at least, sometimes in the criminal justice system it seems that way.

Whether police in Wisconsin can stop a vehicle for littering is unclear because of two opposing decisions from the Court of Appeals this month.