VAN HOLLEN TO SUPREME COURT: WE DO TOO HAVE ANTI-NECRO LAWS

Wisconsin Attorney General J. B. Van Hollen has asked the Wisconsin Supreme Court to review a July decision by the Wisconsin Court of Appeals District IV affirming Grant County Judge George S. Curry's ruling that this state has no law banning necrophilia. [See milwaukeeworld's post here.] There is a law banning sexual intercourse with a corpse; however, the appeals court said the law only applied in a case where an individual was killed in the course of a sexual assault, of if the sequence of death and assault could not be discerned.
The case involved an attempted sex act with the corpse of Laura Tennessen, 20, in September of 2006, shortly after her death in a motorcycle accident in late August. [See September 7th, 2006 post here.] Twin brothers and a friend were charged in the incident.
The appeals court decision led Sen. Dale Schulz to reissue his call for legislation banning necrophilia, and he followed through on his promise by sponsoring SB 247 last month.
In today's news, Van Hollen issued a press release saying that the state of Wisconsin does too have a necro law; that the appeals court erred; and that the supreme court should rule on the matter.
According to the release, entitled, Current Sexual Assault Law Intends To Criminalize Sexual Assaults Whether Victim Is Dead Or Alive, Van Hollen Says, the Attorney General argues: “I believe, and my office argued to the court of appeals, that Wisconsin’s current sexual assault law applies whether a victim is dead or alive, regardless of the circumstances causing the victim’s death.”
The State’s petition for review will be filed with the Wisconsin Supreme Court by August 24, 2007. The Wisconsin Supreme Court’s decision to grant the petition and review the court of appeals decision on its merits is discretionary.
You can read the Attorney General's press release here.

--Michael Horne