State of Wisconsin, Plaintiff-Respondent-Petitioner v. Rita A. Felton, Defendant-Appellant-Cross-Petitioner

Summary

The Wisconsin Supreme Court held that Rita Felton's trial counsel was ineffective in her second-degree murder trial because he was ignorant of the heat-of-passion manslaughter statute, sec. 940.05(1), Stats., and because he entered and withdrew her plea of not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect without consulting her or investigating that defense; both failures prejudiced her because the evidence of decades of battering would have supported jury instructions on those defenses. The court also held that the objective test for heat of passion may be measured by how an ordinary person who is a battered spouse would react to a long history of abuse, and it directed that a statement taken in violation of Miranda not be admitted at retrial. It reversed the portion of the court of appeals decision affirming the conviction, affirmed the portion ordering a new trial on criminal responsibility, and remanded for a new trial on all issues, while declining to decide whether the 'bridging' jury instruction was coercive. Steinmetz, J., concurring, joined by Justices Callow and Ceci, agreed with the result and reasoning but criticized the public defender's assignment of an inexperienced attorney and urged adherence to its certification rules.