Mark Price (Photo source: Wisconsin Dept. of Corrections)
OSHKOSH, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – A man serving a life prison term for murder had his latest appeal denied Wednesday.
Mark Price is serving a life sentence for the 1989 kidnapping and murder of Michael Fitzgibbon. His latest appeal argues there are new factors in the case.
“Price argues that his sentence should be modified based on three new factors: (1) the enhancement and analysis after trial of a photograph of Fitzgibbon’s body that shows he suffered no trauma prior to being shot and killed, which contradicts trial testimony that Price repeatedly punched Fitzgibbon prior to his murder; (2) that the district attorney, detective, and coroner all had legal problems subsequent to trial; and (3) an affidavit from a successor district attorney that states that he believed that Price was mistreated in a different case,” according to the decision.
However, the appeals court rejected those arguments.
“We first note that Price raised the first two claims during his 2014 appeal as claims of prosecutorial misconduct,” the court wrote. “These claims are therefore procedurally barred. As for the third claim, Price could have raised it in his 2014 postconviction motion, but he chose not to. Moreover, Price has not alleged a sufficient reason for his failure to do so. As such, it, too, is procedurally barred.”
“The information Price presents is not highly relevant to the sentences imposed on him for his conduct that led to Fitzgibbon’s death. The circuit court’s sentencing decision was largely based on Price’s role as the instigator of the aggression against Fitzgibbon and Price’s actions that made him culpable as a party to a crime for the criminal actions against Fitzgibbon. Price’s conduct in committing these crimes is not ameliorated by the untoward actions of the district attorney and others. Therefore, we reject Price’s argument that he is entitled to resentencing based on new factors,” the ruling states.
The murder isn’t the only time Price has been in court.
In 1994, Price was charged with drug distribution and solicitation of first-degree intentional homicide. Price was accused of wanting to sell marijuana and using the proceeds to pay others to kill then Winnebago County District Attorney Joe Paulus, who had prosecuted Price. Eventually, Price pleaded no contest to drug delivery and threatening to injure a public official. He was sentenced to 14 years in prison, to be served consecutively to his murder sentence.
In 2004, Paulus was convicted of bribery, tax evasion, and various other crimes in federal court for taking money to reduce or dismiss cases. Additionally, in Price’s case, it was revealed that Paulus withheld exculpatory evidence from Price and his counsel while pursuing the above charges. Paulus’s successor as district attorney, William Lennon, concluded there was prosecutorial misconduct in Price’s case.
As a result, a circuit court vacated Price’s plea on the threat to injure a public official charge, and dismissed that count in 2007. The drug conviction was not addressed until an appeals court ruled in 2021 he should be re-sentenced for that charge. Previously, the drug count sentence was converted to one year of prison but to be served concurrently with the murder sentence.
Price is currently housed at the Prairie Du Chien Correctional Institution. He is eligible to ask for parole in November, state records show.
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