UNDATED (WTAQ) – A new study confirms that sentences vary dramatically for the same crimes in Wisconsin, depending on the judges who issue them.
Gannett Wisconsin Media found that multiple marijuana offenses produced average initial sentences of 10 months in jail to less than one month. 5 and 6-time drunk driving netted 10 to 25 months.
In Sheboygan County, a judge gave a child molester 6 months in jail in 2010, even though prosecutors sought 8 years for a charge that carried a maximum 40 years.
Sentences hinge on an offender’s character, the need to protect the public, and the severity of the offense.
Marquette professor Michael O’Hear says it’s a “problematic” system in which judges are isolated from each other.
Wisconsin does not have firm sentencing guidelines, unlike 18 states and the federal government. State courts director Denis Moran says there have been “snapshots in time” in reviewing sentences, but the state is “large investments away” from ongoing guidelines and comparisons.
Gannett, which owns 10 daily newspapers in the state’s mid-section, compared 140 judges who sentenced at least ten offenders in 5 of 12 crimes it studied.
(Story courtesy of Wheeler News Service)
