Steele v. State

Richard A. Steele was charged and found guilty of the first degree murder of his wife, Joan. After a bifurcated trial in response to appropriate pleas, a jury found him guilty and found that he did not have a mental disease or defect which would exonerate him of criminal responsibility. Judgment of conviction was entered on July 22,1974.

Appeal was brought on the grounds that the trial court erred when it excluded, at the guilt phase of the trial, expert opinion testimony that Steele lacked the capacity to intend to kill his wife. The appeal was predicated on the theory that Wisconsin’s rule…