Data and Analysis on 17 Year Olds in The Adult Justice System
Data extraction, filtering, selection, and tabulation of court cases involving 17 year old defendants in the adult justice system, for the Wisconsin Council on Children and Families.
The analysis and interpretation (done by Wendy Henderson of the WCCF staff) was presented in a report titled, "Risking their Futures: Why trying nonviolent 17-year-olds as adults is bad policy for Wisconsin".
Learn more about the WCCF, here.
Research Issues Before the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago
Study of the frequency of resisting arrest following escapes from custody, and the frequency of resisting arrest following failures to report to jail.
In US v. Gregory J. BURKS, decided September 18, 2008, the Seventh Circuit mentions the research done by Court Data Technologies.
From the Background:At sentencing, Burks argued that he was not a career offender because his prior convictions for failure to report to jail and escape should not be considered crimes of violence under U.S.S.G. § 4B1.2(a). To that end, Burks presented the testimony of Barry Widera of Court Data Technologies, a consulting business specializing in researching data maintained by the Wisconsin court system. Burks argued that the data, which we summarized in our Templeton opinion, Templeton, 543 F.3d at 381-82, showed that neither the escape conviction nor the failure-to-report conviction should be considered a crime of violence under U.S.S.G. § 4B1.2 because in a typical case, neither "presents a serious potential risk of physical injury to another."
From the Analysis:
In Templeton, we held that a conviction under WIS. STAT. § 946.425 for failure to report was not a crime of violence, Templeton, 543 F.3d at 383-84, and that a conviction under WIS. STAT. § 946.42 for escape was not categorically a crime of violence, id. With regard to the escape conviction, we remanded so that the district court could determine, by looking at the indictment or other charging papers, whether the way in which the defendant committed the offense qualified it as a crime of violence. Here too, Burks's conviction for failure to report is not a crime of violence...
In its decision on BURKS, the Seventh Circuit Remanded for re-sentencing.
Expert Testimony in Wisconsin Supreme Court
Analysis of maximum sentences for specific crimes under Truth-In-Sentencing I and Truth-In-Sentencing II, statewide, on a question of "new factor" for a sentence modification motion.
Analysis of Repeat OWI Offenders in Dane County
Evaluation of the success of the Victim Impact Panel (VIP) in Dane County OWI recidivsm, based on the repeat behavior of second offense OWI offenders from January 2002 to October 2005, for a national advocacy group.
Web Based Data Collection and Analysis of Judicial Actions
Development of a custom database application that collects data via a secure website; judicial activity is recorded by the bench in domestic violence court; this custom case data is then matched and married with standard CCAP data for statistical analysis and other oversight activities in Milwaukee County.
Expert Witness Before the Wisconsin Crime Victims' Rights Board
Research and statistical analysis of statewide cases matching a particular set of statutes and circumstances, with a focus on the time period from case filing to case disposition and sentencing; results presented in a summary document for submission to the Board as evidence at a hearing.
In the News
Court Data Technologies was recently mentioned in the Wisconsin State Journal for providing court case research for a story on the Justice Gableman criminal probe.
Read the full article about Wisconsin court data in the Gableman criminal probe story at the Wisconsin State Journal.