The Wisconsin state Assembly has voted to stop letting suspects get away with murder by claiming they were too drunk to know what they were doing. On a voice vote Tuesday, the lower house agreed to remove “voluntary intoxication” as an allowable defense in homicide cases.
The bill was sent to the Senate, although it remains uncertain whether the upper house will take up the measure with only one meeting left in its session. Assembly sponsor Steve Nass notes that a Senate committee has endorsed an identical version of the measure, so there’s still a chance it could pass. If it does, the Whitewater Republican said it would be one of the proudest moments of his career.
The bill is in response to the case of Brian Cooper, who allegedly raped and strangled a pregnant Alisha Bromfield in Door County. His jury could not agree on a homicide verdict, after he claimed he was too drunk to have intended to kill Bromfield and her unborn child. Cooper is scheduled to be retried in May on two counts of first-degree intentional homicide.
