State Ex Rel. Office of the State Public Defender v. Court of Appeals

¶ 1. This is a review of an order of the court of appeals1 that required defense counsel to seek permission from the circuit court in order to reference information from a presentence investigation report (PSI) in an appellate brief.

¶ 2. Assistant State Public Defender Steven Grunder (Grunder) was appointed as postconviction counsel for Michael Buchanan (Buchanan). Grunder, on Buchanan's behalf, filed a motion with the court of appeals seeking permission to use, cite to, and quote from2 Buchanan's PSI in his appellate brief. The court of appeals granted the motion. The State, in turn, filed a…