Price v. Thurmer, No. 09-3851 (7th Cir. 2011)
Annotate this CaseThe defendant, who has a long history of mental illness, was sentenced to 185 years for attempted murder and related crimes following a 1991 incident involving hit-and-run of a pedestrian, a police chase, a four-car pile up, and wielding a machete while growling and ranting. After exhausting Wisconsin state remedies, the defendant pursued a writ of habeas corpus in federal court. On remand, the district court denied relief for a second time. The Seventh Circuit affirmed, rejecting arguments concerning the defendant's attorney's waiver of a hearing on mental competence to stand trial and failure to provide certain information to the court-appointed psychiatric witness. The defendant was not exhibiting signs of mental illness at the relevant time and there was no way to evaluate his claim of amnesia concerning the events at issue. The evidence fell far short of demonstrating ineffective assistance at trial in proving that the incident was a result of a psychotic incident that was not substance-induced. The court deferred to the state court finding that the representation was substandard, but that the defendant was not prejudiced by his lawyer's lapses.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.