6th Amendment Violation.

Byline: Derek Hawkins

WI Supreme Court

Case Name: State of Wisconsin v. Peter J. Hanson

Case No.: 2019 WI 63

Focus: 6th Amendment Violation

Peter Hanson ("Hanson") seeks review of the court of appeals' decision affirming the circuit court's denial of his postconviction motion.

Chad McLean ("McLean") disappeared on the night of February 22, 1998. His body was found one month later in the Pensaukee River with four gunshot wounds to his head. The case went cold until 2009 when Hanson's estranged wife Kathy Hanson ("Kathy") gave a statement to police implicating Hanson in McLean's murder. In November 2012, a judge in Oconto County held a John Doe proceeding to further investigate McLean's murder. Hanson testified at that proceeding, made incriminating statements, and was subsequently charged with McLean's murder. Hanson was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

Hanson challenges the admissibility at trial of portions of his testimony from the John Doe proceeding on two grounds. First, Hanson contends that the admission of his John Doe testimony regarding Kathy's statement to police inculpating him in McLean's murder violated his Sixth Amendment right to confrontation. Second, Hanson claims his trial counsel was ineffective for failing to object to the admission of his John Doe testimony because, at the time he...