Maybe this is a trendy thing in other states as well, but Wisconsin
has a bizarre, cart-before-the-horse practice of anointing complaining
witnesses and deceased persons as “victims” long before the defendant reaches a
plea agreement or calls the first witness at his jury trial. In one example, I represented a defendant in
an obvious self-defense case. It was so
obvious that the jury came back “not guilty” in warp speed—under one hour, if
memory serves. Yet, despite the
presumption of innocence and the lack of sufficient factual allegations let
alone evidence, the judge and prosecutor had repeatedly used terms like
“victim’s rights” and even “the victim” throughout the case and even during the
jury trial.
