Sentencing – Extended Supervision – Error

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WI Court of Appeals – District II

Case Name: State of Wisconsin v. Antonio D. Barbeau

Case No.: 2014AP2876-CR

Officials: Neubauer, C.J., Reilly, P.J., and Hagedorn, J.

Focus: Sentencing – Extended Supervision – Error

Antonio D. Barbeau, a few months shy of his fifteenth birthday, pleaded no contest to the first-degree intentional homicide of his great-grandmother. He was sentenced to life imprisonment with the right to seek release to parole supervision on his fiftieth birthday in 2048, after thirty-five years of imprisonment. Later, at the prodding of the Department of Corrections (DOC), the circuit court discovered that Barbeau was actually eligible for release to extended supervision and not parole. The court, the district attorney, and defense counsel all agreed that the judgment should be amended so that Barbeau would be eligible for release to extended supervision in 2048. However, before the judgment was amended, Barbeau, with new counsel, moved for resentencing, arguing that the error in imposing a parole eligibility date rather than an extended supervision eligibility date was a new factor that warranted modifying his sentence so that he would be eligible for release to extended supervision after twenty, instead of thirty-five, years of imprisonment. In addition, Barbeau argued that the statutory scheme he was sentenced under violated the prohibitions against cruel and unusual punishment contained in the United States and Wisconsin Constitutions. The circuit court granted Barbeau’s motion only to the extent of amending the judgment to reflect that he was eligible for extended supervision on November 24, 2048. We reject Barbeau’s contentions that the error at sentencing is a new factor that justifies a modification of his sentence and that his sentence is cruel and unusual; thus, we affirm.

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Attorney Derek A. Hawkins is the managing partner at Hawkins Law Offices LLC, where he heads up the firm’s startup law practice. He specializes in business formation, corporate governance, intellectual property protection, private equity and venture capital funding and mergers & acquisitions. Check out the website at www.hawkins-lawoffices.com or contact them at 262-737-8825.