Sentence Modification

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WI Court of Appeals – District I

Case Name: State of Wisconsin v. Ryan A. Banks

Case No.: 2016AP1025

Officials: Lundsten, P.J., Sherman and Blanchard, JJ.

Focus: Sentence Modification

Ryan Banks appeals an order denying his postconviction motion to withdraw his guilty plea or, in the alternative, for sentence modification. He also appeals an order denying his motion for reconsideration of that order. Banks contends that he is entitled to plea withdrawal because of ineffective assistance of trial counsel. According to Banks, his trial counsel was deficient by failing to move for suppression of Banks’ confession to being the person who shot and killed the victim, and counsel deficiently told Banks that Banks had no defense. Banks asserts that these instances of deficient performance prompted Banks to plead guilty and forgo his right to a trial. More specifically, Banks effectively asserts that (1) he would not have pled guilty because, if his trial counsel had moved to suppress Banks’ admissions, the motion would have been granted and the prosecution against Banks would have been dropped and (2) he would not have pled guilty if he had not been pressured to do so by his trial counsel. We conclude that the circuit court properly denied Banks’ postconviction motion and his motion for reconsideration, and we affirm both orders.

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