Wisconsin Judgment Day, the Sequel

So Butler didn't "find a loophole" as this ad claims. He convinced the appeals court that the trial judge had allowed the jury to hear prejudicial information, which is just what appeals lawyers are supposed to do.

Furthermore, Mitchell didn't get his new trial, and he wasn't released. The state took the case to the next level, the Wisconsin Supreme Court, which reversed the appellate court. It was true, said the high court, that the trial judge shouldn't have allowed the jury to hear about the victim's virginity, but, said Justice Shirley Abrahamson, writing for the majority, it didn't make any difference. "[W]e can conclude that there is no reasonable possibility that the error contributed to the conviction," wrote Abrahamson.

Butler, then, had nothing to do with Mitchell's eventual release. Mitchell stayed in prison until he was paroled in 1992. In 1995, he was convicted for twice raping a 14-year-old. He was sentenced to 40 years behind bars, where he remains today.

The misleading message of this ad would be bad enough on its own, but its dominant visual image has drawn condemnation from many quarters. In that image, which remains on the screen longer than any other in this ad, a black-and-white photo of Butler is paired with Mitchell's police mug shot. Mitchell is black. Butler is the only black justice on Wisconsin's Supreme Court. The picture, at the very least, serves to remind viewers of Butler's race.

The independent Judicial Campaign Integrity Committee, which is monitoring ads in the race, called the spot "highly offensive and deliberately misleading," saying its race-baiting was reminiscent of the infamous Willlie Horton ad that attacked 1988 Democratic presidential nominee Michael Dukakis over prison furloughs granted when he was governor. The panel called for Gableman to take the ad down, as have some Wisconsin editorial boards. But Gableman's campaign hasn't done so, and his campaign maintains the ad presents a fair comparison between the candidates.

The Letter from the Grave
Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, a large business lobbying organization with a membership much like that of any Chamber of Commerce-type group, wants to see Butler unseated because, it says, he's an "activist" judge. It came after Butler this week with an ad that centers not on the civil liability issues that directly affect its members, but on a murder case that ended just last month.