MADISON, Wis. – In case you missed it, 44 former Assistant Attorneys General endorsed Judge Susan Crawford’s campaign for the Wisconsin Supreme Court yesterday, calling on Wisconsinites to once again reject Brad Schimel for the Supreme Court.
The Assistant Attorneys General called out Brad Schimel’s failure to test a backlog of more than 6,000 sexual assault kits during his tenure as Wisconsin’s Attorney General. As their letter states, “An Attorney General should lead from the front, not be dragged along reluctantly when it comes to improving our criminal justice system.” Brad Schimel is too extreme for Wisconsin, and voters should reject him once again on April 1st.
See more from Spectrum News 1:
Spectrum News 1: ‘Partisan stripe doesn’t matter to us’: 44 former Assistant Attorneys General endorse Susan Crawford for Wisconsin Supreme Court
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44 former Assistant Attorneys General with a combined more than 805 years of experience from both sides of the aisle signed on to a letter Tuesday endorsing Susan Crawford for State Supreme Court Justice.
Some of those supporters who signed on to the letter spoke out and went beyond the pages to share why they are backing Crawford. One of the biggest reasons has to do with how the state’s rape kit backlog got cleaned up, as the letter argues then-Attorney General Brad Schimel, who is now running for State Supreme Court, took too much credit.
“Partisan stripe means nothing to us,” Diane Sorensen, a former Assistant Attorney General, said. “Now, more than ever, we need a judicial system and leadership that embodies common sense, fairness, and integrity.”
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“One of his most glaring failures of his tenure was his refusal to prioritize the DNA testing of sexual assault kits,” Crawford explained. “Under his watch, the Wisconsin Department of Justice tested only nine kits out of a backlog of more than 6,000 untested kits in his first two years in office.”
That number comes from past reporting by the Green Bay Press Gazette in 2017 when Schimel was midway through his term.
Almost a year-and-a-half later, as the race for reelection against Democrat Josh Kaul ramped up, Schimel announced more than 4,100 kits had been tested with victim permission, leaving just five remaining, thanks to $7 million in grant funding.
Crawford, however, said that processing didn’t come soon enough and echoed concerns brought up by current liberal State Supreme Court Justice Jill Karofsky, who was the executive director of the Office of Crime Victim Services for the state Department of Justice at the time and has since endorsed Crawford’s campaign.
“[Schimel] instead told Justice Karofsky and the other staff at the Department of Justice to go seek outside funding, federal funding, while he went to the Legislature and asked for more attorneys to pursue the right-wing agenda,” Crawford responded when asked by reporters about Karofsky’s role in rape kit testing.
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