State v. Trawitzki

¶ 47. (dissenting). At issue in this case is the permissible unit of prosecution under the theft statute, Wis. Stat. § 943.20. I believe that the permissible unit of prosecution for theft is found in the statutory definition of the crime. In examining the statutory definition, I conclude that the legislature did not intend that two discrete violations of the theft statute be parsed into fifteen separate charges.

¶ 48. Yet, the majority ignores the unit of prosecution defined by the statute and determines the unit of prosecution to be the number of firearms stolen. In defining the underlying…