Criminal Procedure — plea colloquy

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Wisconsin Court of Appeals

Criminal

Criminal Procedure — plea colloquy

The court is not required to inform the defendant at the time of his guilty plea whether the charge is classified as a misdemeanor or felony.

“A review of Wisconsin’s criminal jury instructions in effect at the time Brown reiterated this Bangert holding reveals that the vast majority of those instructions did not include the word ‘felony’ or ‘misdemeanor.’ This is also true of the instructions in effect today. In fact, the instructions applicable to the charges to which the defendant in Brown actually pled did not include the word ‘felony’ or ‘misdemeanor.’ Also, while most of our criminal statutes at the time of Brown (and now) did reference their related crime as either a ‘felony’ or ‘misdemeanor,’ some contained no such designation within the statute itself. Thus, the supreme court could not have held that ‘summariz[ing] the elements of the crime charged by reading from the appropriate jury instructions … or from the applicable statute’ can satisfy the ‘nature of the charge’ aspect of a plea colloquy if it considered a charge’s ‘felony’ or ‘misdemeanor’ designation to be part of the “nature of the charge.”

Affirmed.

Recommended for publication in the official reports.

2012AP307-CR State v. Robles

Dist. II, Fond du Lac County, Grimm, J., Gundrum, J.

Attorneys: For Appellant: Dimmer, Brian P., Racine; For Respondent: St. John, Rebecca Rapp, Madison; Toney, Eric, Fond du Lac