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Constitutional Law Keyed to Choper
Wisconsin v. Mitchell
Citation:
508 U.S. 476 (1993)Facts
On October 7, 1989, Todd Mitchell and a group of young Black men and boys gathered at an apartment complex in Kenosha, Wisconsin. After discussing a scene from the movie “Mississippi Burning” in which a white man beats a young Black boy who was praying, Mitchell asked the group if they felt “hyped up to move on some white people.” When a young white boy walked by on the opposite side of the street, Mitchell said, “You all want to fuck somebody up? There goes a white boy; go get him.” Mitchell counted to three, pointed in the boy’s direction, and the group attacked the boy, beating him severely and stealing his tennis shoes. The victim was rendered unconscious and remained in a coma for four days. Mitchell was convicted of aggravated battery, which normally carries a maximum sentence of two years’ imprisonment. However, because the jury found that Mitchell had intentionally selected his victim because of race, the maximum sentence was increased to seven years under Wisconsin’s penalty-enhancement statute. The Circuit Court sentenced Mitchell to four years’ imprisonment.
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