6th Amendment Violation

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WI Supreme Court

Case Name: State of Wisconsin v. Peter J. Hanson

Case No.: 2019 WI 63

Focus: 6^th Amendment Violation

Peter Hanson (“Hanson”) seeks review of the court of appeals’ decision affirming the circuit court’s denial of his postconviction motion.

Chad McLean (“McLean”) disappeared on the night of February 22, 1998. His body was found one month later in the Pensaukee River with four gunshot wounds to his head. The case went cold until 2009 when Hanson’s estranged wife Kathy Hanson (“Kathy”) gave a statement to police implicating Hanson in McLean’s murder. In November 2012, a judge in Oconto County held a John Doe proceeding to further investigate McLean’s murder. Hanson testified at that proceeding, made incriminating statements, and was subsequently charged with McLean’s murder. Hanson was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

Hanson challenges the admissibility at trial of portions of his testimony from the John Doe proceeding on two grounds. First, Hanson contends that the admission of his John Doe testimony regarding Kathy’s statement to police inculpating him in McLean’s murder violated his Sixth Amendment right to confrontation. Second, Hanson claims his trial counsel was ineffective for failing to object to the admission of his John Doe testimony because, at the time he testified, he was in custody on an unrelated matter and not read all of the Miranda warnings.

We conclude that Hanson’s Sixth Amendment right to confrontation was not violated because his John Doe testimony regarding Kathy’s statement to police was not offered to prove the truth of the matter asserted. We also conclude that Hanson’s ineffective assistance of counsel claim fails because the law was unsettled as to whether Miranda warnings were required at John Doe proceedings. Finally, we determine as a matter of first impression that Miranda warnings are not required at John Doe proceedings.

Affirmed

Concur:

Dissent:

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Derek A Hawkins is trademark corporate counsel for Harley-Davidson. Hawkins oversees the prosecution and maintenance of the Harley-Davidson’s international trademark portfolio in emerging markets.