Wisconsin Right Now

John Tate clinically says parole is "entirely a data-driven process." No- it also involves real people, namely victims' families. Gov. Tony Evers' two-time appointee to chair the Wisconsin Parole Commission is defending the discretionary paroles of some of the most brutal killers and rapists in Wisconsin history - including men who strangled and cut the throats of women and who murdered children - because he says they aren't risks to public safety. One of the paroles was of Carl Beletsky, who cut his wife Kathleen's head off in Oconomowoc and put it in a wood-burning stove. Another was of the killer of 17-month-old Drake London, brutally beaten in Kenosha. Meanwhile, the governor has remained silent on the specific cases. In the interview, Tate clinically defended the paroles of murderers, whose victims' families are still suffering deeply from the crimes and releases and who, in multiple cases, say they weren't even notified . [caption...

To go against what Judge Sykes recommended - it's killing the family once again. We're all back to '97 and history is repeating itself" - the victim's sister. John Tate, Tony Evers' embattled Parole Commission chairman, is now refusing to reverse his decision to release a racist wife-killer because he's worried there could be a lawsuit. In other words, he's worried about the legal risk of upholding his own controversial decision. John Tate, who is also chair of Racine's City Council, made his first public comments on the looming release of Douglas Balsewicz, now 54, to his hometown newspaper, The Racine Journal-Times . He falsely stated to the newspaper that he can't reverse himself. Balsewicz, of Milwaukee County, is set to be released on May 17 after serving only 24 years of an 80-year sentence and over the objections of the victim's family. The newspaper wrote, "according to Tate, it’s too late for Balsewicz’s parole to be...