Judge McNamara?

Yes. Hi.

Hi. Hi. It's Lizzie O'Leary. How are you?

Just fine. Nice to meet you this way.

A few weeks ago, I called up a judge in Wisconsin named Nicholas McNamara.

He serves on the circuit court in Dane County, which includes the city of Madison, the state capital.

Before McNamara was a judge, he was a lawyer. He represented plaintiffs in negligence cases,

civil cases. But when he became a judge in 2009, that changed. His caseload became almost exclusively

criminal. Did you have a picture in your mind of what, say, evaluating an offender or sentencing would be like before you actually took office?

No. I had no idea.

I had no.

Eventually, of course, he figured it out.

As a starting point in Wisconsin, there are three primary sentencing factors for a judge to consider.

The gravity of the offense, the character of the offender, and the need to protect the public.

To assess these factors, Wisconsin judges can order what's called a pre-sentence report.

I want to get background information on the defendant and sometimes from victims when there's victims.

And that's what a pre-sentence report does.

And interviews family members of the defendant and of the victim and history of education

and traumatic life experiences for the defendant, other challenges,

disabilities, mental health, addiction issues.

With this information in hand, eventually a decision is made.

A sentence is handed down, but the process doesn't end there.

...