(The Center Square) – Voters in Wisconsin are getting differing messages when it comes to crime in the state’s race for the Supreme Court.
Current Attorney General Josh Kaul held a call with reporters across Wisconsin earlier this week, saying Judge Brad Schimel was taking too long to test Wisconsin’s backlog of rape kits back in 2015.
“Brad Schimmel failed to respond with urgency,” Kaul said. “His administration tested just nine of the thousands of backlog kits in his first two years in office.”
Kaul said he wanted to “set the record straight” before Wednesday’s debate between Schimel and Judge Susan Crawford.
Schimel said several times that his office took its time, got a grant to pay for the work, then tested 4,000 kits. Schimel said “every single kit that needed to be tested” was tested.
Kaul’s call came as the latest in the back-and-forth over the two judges’ records on crime and crime victims.
Schimel’s campaign on Monday launched a new ad featuring a victim of crime.
The ad, called, “Tell Me,” recounts a story from a woman named Laurie, whose sister was murdered.
“When my sister was murdered 15 years ago, Brad Schimel kept his promise to us. He told us he was gonna get us justice, and he did,” the ad states. “When I see these commercials attacking him, I have a lot to say about that, because Brad would kneel next to my mom and hold her hands. And you’re gonna tell me that’s a person that doesn’t care about victims?”
Crime, and the judges’ past rulings from the bench, has become one of the major issues in the race for the high court.
Schimel has spent weeks hammering on Crawford for a list of cases that he says shows she is soft on crime.
Those include the 2019 case of Antonio Gentry, who was on trial for shooting a man in the head. Prosecutors recommended a total of 50 years in prison, but Crawford sentenced Gentry to 30 and gave him a chance to get out early on parole.
There’s also the two cases involving Kevin Welton. He was charged in 2018 with the felony sexual assault of a child. Welton could have been sentenced to up to 100 years in prison for the sexual assault of a two children under the age of 8. Crawford sentenced him to four years in prison. Welton is now out of prison.
There’s also the 2022 case against Curtis O’Brien. Prosecutors charged him with the repeated sexual assault of a child, when the child was 5 years old. Crawford, as a Dane County judge, allowed O’Brien out on a $500 signature bond. Eventually, O’Brian was sentenced to four years in prison, but was released in two.
Crawford’s campaign, meanwhile, put out a call for “common sense” on Tuesday.
Schimel and Crawford will answer questions at the same time, on the same stage at a debate played host to by Channel 12 in Milwaukee on Wednesday night.
