MADISON, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – The Wisconsin Supreme Court will hear arguments about the evidence used in an Oconto County murder case.
Peter Hanson is serving a life prison term without the chance of parole for the 1998 murder of Chad McLean.
McLean disappeared on Feb. 22, 1998. His body was found a month later in the Pensaukee River. The case went cold until 2009, when Hanson’s estranged wife, Kathy Hanson, told investigators that Hanson had killed McLean, the decision recounts. After trial, Hanson was convicted in 2013.
Hanson challenged his conviction, but the appeals court rejected all of the arguments last year. Hanson now appeals that ruling.
According to summary provided by the court, the justices will review two issues:
- Whether the admission of hearsay statements of a defendant’s deceased wife inculpating the defendant in murder violates a defendant’s right to confrontation.
- Whether trial counsel is ineffective in failing to move to suppress inculpatory statements made by a defendant at a John Doe hearing where the defendant was in custody and not properly Mirandized.
No date has been set for the oral arguments.
