By: Derek Hawkins//April 27, 2016//
Case Name: State of Wisconsin v. James Elvin Lagrone
Case No.: 2013AP1424-CR
Circuit court not required to conduct right-to-testify colloquy at the responsibility phase of a bifurcated trial resulting from a plea of not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect.
“In sum, in assessing exactly what the federal and state constitutions require in this case, we must bear in mind that “[t]he civil hues of the responsibility phase, coupled with the fact that bifurcation and the NGI plea are statutory in nature, not constitutional, remove the proceeding from the exacting demands of criminal proceedings and leave it in a category of its own.” Magett, 355 Wis. 2d 617, ¶40 (citation omitted).”
BRADLEY, A. W., J. dissents, joined by ABRAHAMSON, J.