This combination of file photos shows Brad Schimel, former Republican attorney general Brad Schimel, in Madison, Wis., Jan. 5, 2015, and Susan Crawford in June 2024. (AP Photo/Andy Manis, Susan Crawford for Wisconsin)
WAUSAU, WI (WSAU) – As college basketball fans huddle around the TV this week to watch their favorite team compete for a national championship, Wisconsinites are seeing a bevy of political ads claiming each of Wisconsin’s Supreme Court candidates go easy on suspects charged with sexual assault crimes.
However, a new analysis conducted by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is looking to help provide voters with clarity on the matter. According to the analysis, the former Wisconsin attorney general has a history of being tougher on sexual assault defendants than Judge Crawford, as Schimel has “generally sentenced those convicted of felony sexual assault to more time behind bars than Crawford. In the most serious category of felonies, his median prison sentence was more than twice what she handed down.”
The outlet also stated that a review of the candidates’ cases found that neither had “come close to sentencing defendants to the maximum possible time in the felony sexual assault cases they oversaw.”
Crawford was critical of the analysis in her statement to the Sentinel, claiming it is hard to find “apples-to-apples” comparisons on cases due to their complexity.
When broken down by case, Schimel sentenced those charged with felony B sexual assault to ten years or more behind bars in line with prosecutor recommendations 67% of the time, while Crawford sentenced those charged with the same felony to four years behind bars, which was in line with prosecutor recommendations just 40% of the time. A felony B sexual assault conviction can carry up to 60 years in prison and extended supervision.
The Sentinel asked Crawford if she had any data to back up her recent ads against Schimel, which claim he allowed a felon convicted of sexual assault out early who went on to commit another sexual assault, and she acknowledged that no data is available to verify the claim, saying, “There is no statewide data on recidivism, and there’s no data that we could look at.”
Schimel additionally told the outlet that he doesn’t believe the issue of past sexual assault cases is “an important issue” in the race for the high court and said the importance of past cases will be up to the voters on April 1st.
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