Of the original 28 applicants for the 3 open judgeships in Dane County, 14 remained as of this past Wednesday. Those 14 were interviewed by the selection panel last week. Due to his recent race for Judge Nowakowski's open seat, AUSA Stephen Ehlke is viewed by most as a favorite for one of the three positions. It's anyone's guess for the other two.
Front and center this past week, however, was the Supreme Court's decision in Montejo v. Louisiana. http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/08pdf/07-1529.pdf While the ultimate import of this decision will work its way out in the upcoming years, the 5 person majority explicitly overruled Michigan v. Jackson, 475 U.S. 625 (1986) demonstrating once again the triumph of that group of legal theorists who advocate for the demise of evidence suppression as a remedy for constitutional violations. I believe that the best comment about the decision and its impact on the criminal defense practice was made by Bill Tyroler. Bill opined: Out the window, such cases as:State v. Todd Dagnall, 2000 WI 82, ¶4 (“We hold that Dagnall was not required to invoke the right to counsel in this case because he had been formally charged with a crime and counsel had been retained to represent him on that charge.”); State v. James H. Hornung, 229 Wis.2d 469, 600 N.W.2d 264 (Ct. App. 1999) (“the strict requirements for ‘unequivocally and unambiguously’ asserting one's right to counsel under the Fifth Amendment are somewhat less stringent under the Sixth Amendment.”). As a matter of pragmatics, it’s probably fair to suppose an increase in efforts at post-charging interrogation.