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Wisconsin Carry in Truck Case Dismissed by Prosecutor, Avoids Precedent
Gun Watch ^ | 30 August, 2017 | Dean Weingarten

Posted on 09/03/2017 9:31:02 PM PDT by marktwain


In June of 2016, a 53 year old truck driver, Guy A. Smith was arrested for having a loaded revolver in the cab of his truck. Smith did not have a Wisconsin concealed carry permit. He held that he did not need one. The Wisconsin Constitution is very clear. The arrest took place in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

In 1998, the people of Wisconsin voted for Constitutional Carry in a state referendum amending the state constitution. The amendment, which created Article I, Section 25, is very clear. It received 74% of the vote. From Article I Section 25:

 The people have the right to keep and bear arms for security, defense, hunting, recreation or any other lawful purpose.
Smith and his attorney insisted on a Jury trial. Kudos to Wisconsin Carry for assisting with the case. The defense used a Constitutionality defense from the start, and showed that it is not illegal, under Wisconsin law, to carry a loaded handgun in a vehicle.  The statue on transport of weapons says:
" ... no person may place, possess, or transport a firearm, bow, or crossbow in or on a vehicle, unless one of the following applies: 1. The firearm is unloaded or is a handgun."
The prosecuting attorney,  Thomas Binger, stated that the law could not mean what it said, because it would invalidate the Wisconsin statute on concealed carry. The Judge corrected the attorney, noting that it would only invalidate the statute "in cars".  From jsonline.com:
The defense position "would suggest anyone without a permit can drive around with a loaded weapon in the vehicle," Binger said. "I decline to read the statute so broadly." He said Wisconsin's concealed carry law, Act 35, would have no meaning.

"No meaning in cars," Circuit Judge Bruce Schroeder clarified.
The case was scheduled to go to trial, starting with jury selection on August 28, 2017.  On 28 August, 2017, before jury selection began, the State, in the person of attorney Thomas Binger, asked that the case be dismissed and the defendant acquitted. From wicourts.gov:
Kenosha County Case Number 2016CM000842 State of Wisconsin vs. Guy A Smith

All charges against Guy A Smith in this case have been dismissed. These charges were not proven and have no legal effect. Guy A Smith is presumed innocent.
This means that there will not be a legal precedent from the case. The Supreme Court will not have a chance to clarify that Article 1, Section 25 of the Wisconsin Constitution, ratified by 74% of the voters, actually means what it says.

But the case is known, and will have an effect. More people will exercise their Constitutional rights.  More cases will come before the courts.

It is clear the case against Mr. Smith should never have been brought. How many people have plea bargained a guilty verdict because they did not have the moral courage of Mr. Smith, or the intestinal fortitude to push the case to a jury trial?  How many took plea bargains because they expected the courts to ignore the State Constitution, the law, and simple justice?  How many took plea bargains because they did not have the means to fight the case competently?

The prosecutor should have known this was a lost case from the beginning. Perhaps they did. If they did not, they show a distinct lack of competence.

It appears the prosecution chose to exercise punishment by process. It cost considerable time and money for Mr. Smith to challenge the unjust prosecution. He took a considerable risk that ideologically driven judges would ignore the Constitution and the law. It has happened before.

Perhaps Mr. Smith can recoup some losses with a wrongful arrest lawsuit. Perhaps not. It has happened before in Wisconsin.

©2017 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
Link to Gun Watch 



TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; Politics; Society
KEYWORDS: banglist; opencarry; secondamendment; wi; wisconsin
Progress in enforcing the Wisconsin Constitution and the Second Amendment.
1 posted on 09/03/2017 9:31:02 PM PDT by marktwain
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To: marktwain

One of the law school groups that try to find wrongly convicted people should review all cases that involved weapons since 1998 and see who else was wrongly charged, plea bargained, and all. The governor should pardon them, every one of them.


2 posted on 09/03/2017 9:41:37 PM PDT by Reno89519 (Drain the Swamp is not party specific. Lyn' Ted is still a liar, Good riddance to him.)
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To: Reno89519

Not a pardon but a complete expungment with a written statement by the state that these people are legally innocent.


3 posted on 09/03/2017 9:47:12 PM PDT by Az Joe (Gloria in excelsis Deo)
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To: Az Joe

Yes, better. Much better.


4 posted on 09/03/2017 9:49:53 PM PDT by Reno89519 (Drain the Swamp is not party specific. Lyn' Ted is still a liar, Good riddance to him.)
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To: Az Joe

And it’d be nice to have one stating the lawyer Thomas Binger has been found incompetent to practice law and has turned in his shyster card, but that isn’t likely I suppose.


5 posted on 09/03/2017 10:00:28 PM PDT by bigbob (People say believe half of what you see son and none of what you hear - M. Gaye)
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To: marktwain

>>>no person may place, possess, or transport a firearm, bow, or crossbow in or on a vehicle, unless one of the following applies: 1. The firearm is unloaded or is a handgun<<<

You have to love the guy who slipped that last sentence into the Law. LOL


6 posted on 09/03/2017 10:15:30 PM PDT by Kickass Conservative (The way Liberals carry on about Deportation, you would think "Mexico" was Spanish for "Auschwitz".)
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To: PROCON

Ping


7 posted on 09/03/2017 10:15:52 PM PDT by Tilted Irish Kilt (The Fourth Estate has become Fifth column !)
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To: marktwain

You know why they dismissed the case.

They do not precedent set that fortifies 2A and the WI constitution on guns.


8 posted on 09/03/2017 10:25:04 PM PDT by Secret Agent Man ( Gone Galt; Not averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: Secret Agent Man

They do not precedent set that fortifies 2A and the WI constitution on guns.


Exactly correct.

A constitutional minded prosecutor should be setting up a trial case to take to the Wisconsin Supreme Court.


9 posted on 09/03/2017 10:27:01 PM PDT by marktwain (President Trump and his supporters are the Resistance. His opponents are the Reactionaries.)
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To: marktwain
A constitutional minded prosecutor should be setting up a trial case to take to the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

Why??? It's not in their best interest to do so. It may be legally and ethically the right thing to do but that's not what gets them elected & re-elected to their jobs. It's not what will get them into judgeships. Further, for their fellow practitioners across the aisle at the defense table, there's money to be made in the murkiness and we know the law is a very chummy and fluid profession. You only need to look at the US Senate for confirmation.

10 posted on 09/04/2017 1:11:36 AM PDT by T-Bird45 (It feels like the seventies, and it shouldn't.)
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To: marktwain

I seem to recall one of the anti gun states passed some resolution about guns being outlawed in the work place then they declared OTR trucks as ones workplace.

or something along that line...


11 posted on 09/04/2017 1:58:03 AM PDT by xrmusn ((6/98)""If the earth were flat, cats would have pushed everything over the edge by now")
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To: marktwain

The 2A is very clear, no firearms restrictions for law abiding citizens.


12 posted on 09/04/2017 3:32:48 AM PDT by exnavy (long live the .45 colt, the original handgun cartridge.)
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To: marktwain
The prosecutor should have known this was a lost case...

No, I think he mistook it for a ham sandwich.

If they did not, they show a distinct lack of competence.

A prosecutor with a lack of competence?

How dare you!

They are infallible...their intelligence knows no bounds...morality is their calling card...ethics in action is their...no, no, I can't do this shit anymore.

Truth be told, most prosecutors are simple idiots with delusions of grandeur that care less about the administration of justice than about self-aggrandizement.

Did the prosecutor offer recompense for the citizen wrongfully and stupidly accused?

Yeah, thought not...he got what he wanted...he cost the accused money...and he put himself on the list of adored gun-grabbing assholes that the POS Bloomberg activists pays daily.

Worthless turds.

Flush them.

13 posted on 09/04/2017 6:08:31 AM PDT by OldSmaj (The only thing washed on a filthy liberal is their damned brains.)
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To: Tilted Irish Kilt; mylife; Joe Brower; MaxMax; Randy Larsen; waterhill; Envisioning; AZ .44 MAG; ...

RKBA Ping List


This Ping List is for all things pertaining to the 2nd Amendment.

FReepmail me if you want to be added to or deleted from the list.

More 2nd Amendment related articles on FR's Bang List.

14 posted on 09/04/2017 6:27:31 AM PDT by PROCON (#MAGA!)
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To: marktwain

Your vehicle falls under the Castle Doctrine, it’s the same as your house I always thought...


15 posted on 09/04/2017 6:53:25 AM PDT by Geronimo (God Bless America and President Donald J. Trump...)
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To: marktwain

Attorneys in civil cases can be fined for pushing cases without merit. That should apply to prosecutors even more so, being employed by the state.


16 posted on 09/04/2017 9:28:29 AM PDT by Still Thinking (Freedom is NOT a loophole!)
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To: Kickass Conservative

You have to love the guy who slipped that last sentence into the Law. LOL
= = = = = = = = = = = = = =
About Church carry in VA

Virginia law bars guns in religious meetings unless the person has a “good and sufficient reason” to carry a weapon.

I have found that ‘sufficient’ could include because I can or want to.

When it comes to carrying in a store/business with the dreaded ‘hand gun slash’ I think there is a distinct reason why CONCEALED is included in CONCEALED CARRY.

The ‘bad guys’ see the slash and in a respect it affords them a ‘haven’ in the midst of all the ‘crazy’ armed persons they don’t know are out there.


17 posted on 09/04/2017 10:46:21 AM PDT by xrmusn ((6/98)""If the earth were flat, cats would have pushed everything over the edge by now")
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To: marktwain

So a Man is kidnapped at gun point, then held for ransom and is required to spend his life savings on an attorney to keep from paying the Extortion Money the Kidnappers are demanding. Then when the Big Boss in charge of the Kidnapping and Extortion plot realizes that there isn’t going to be a Payday. He orders the Release of the Victim.

NOT ONE SINGLE LAW WAS VIOLATED BY THE VICTIM IN THIS CASE!!!

dID i GET THAT RIGHT??


18 posted on 09/04/2017 11:07:21 AM PDT by eyeamok (Idle hands are the Devil's workshop)
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To: xrmusn

My In-Laws own a Business in MS.

When MS passed their version of Constitutional Carry, they put a “no Firearms” sign on their Door. They bought into the Wild West hysteria hook, line and sinker.

I went to visit them and when I saw that sign I LOL.

I asked them if that sign would stop anyone with Criminal Intent from walking in. They didn’t think it would.

My response was simply that it was nothing but a feel good gesture that would affect nobody but the Law Abiding. In other words, a complete waste of time.

They took down the sign.


19 posted on 09/04/2017 11:31:46 AM PDT by Kickass Conservative (The way Liberals carry on about Deportation, you would think "Mexico" was Spanish for "Auschwitz".)
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