Homicide dip lets prosecutors work cold cases

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The lowest Milwaukee murder rate in more than two decades did not translate to less work for prosecutors, public defenders or the judges who hear homicide cases.

But the decline in murders from 105 in 2007 to 71 last year has allowed assistant district attorneys to investigate and solve more “cold case” files.

Prosecutor Mark S. Williams heads the five-person homicide unit in the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s office and said that although the murder rate dropped, caseloads have remained about the same.

“We’re still as busy as ever,” Williams said. “What the gap has provided is a little more time for our prosecutors to work on old homicides.”

“It’s been wonderful,” he said.

The 2008 Milwaukee total was the lowest since 70 homicides were reported in 1985.

The Prosecution Doesn’t Rest

According to Williams, prosecutors in the homicide division each have about 20 pending cases, which is consistent with past years. That is in addition to a varying number of postconviction motions from previous cases.

He also noted that of the 71 murders in 2008, the majority have been presented by the Milwaukee Police Department for prosecution, although there are holdovers from year to year.

Felony Division Circuit Court Judge Carl Ashley said the lower murder rate has not directly affected his court yet, because the majority of murder cases coming to trial are from 2007.

According to the county’s Criminal Investigation Bureau, 54 of the homicides from 2008 have been cleared by police.

But because there were fewer murders to solve last year, compared to 2007, prosecutors have been able to spend additional time on older cases.

“The solution rate is typically around 80 percent each year, but right now we’re working on a couple of older John Doe cases, which we didn’t have time to do before,” said Williams, who personally handles about 45 homicide cases annually.

Ashley declined to speculate on whether the 2008 murder total could eventually translate to less work for the court.

Since he started handling homicide and sexual assault cases in August, Ashley said he has presided over six homicide and five sexual assault trials. He estimated that homicide trials last about a week and noted that some cases simply plead out.

“It’s really hard to measure the impact because it such a crapshoot,” Ashley said.

“Sometimes you may not have a trial for months, but I’ve been busy all the time.”

Best Defense

Similarly, the initial impact of fewer murders has yet to be felt within the State Public Defender’s office in Milwaukee, although Thomas H. Reed said the decline may allow attorneys to take on other criminal cases.

But unlike the district attorney’s office, the SPD does not have a homicide division, so assignments are broader, according to Reed, who heads up the Criminal Trial office in Milwaukee.

“There is a little bit of nuance because we don’t exclusively do homicide cases,” Reed said. “So we’re really not feeling the difference of a one-year drop.”

Figures provided by the SPD showed that the Milwaukee office opened 96 homicide cases in 2007, compared to 83 last year.

Even though the statistics show a drop, Reed said some 2007 cases may have had much earlier offense dates. He also said defendants may have refused representation, retained private counsel or not qualified for a public defender.

Reed said it will take a trend “over several years” for the SPD to feel any significant impact on the number of criminal cases attorneys handle.

“I’m sure if we’re lucky and the trend continues throughout the next few years, that might make a difference,” Reed said. “But in any given year, we still have large number of clients who face substantial prison time for a variety of criminal offenses.”