Lawrence Dalton was convicted of murder in two states in the space of two years. A Kenosha County, Wisconsin, jury found him guilty in 1979 of first-degree murder, kidnapping by deceit and a further charge, and he was sentenced to life. In November 1981, while serving that sentence, he pleaded guilty in Cook County, Illinois, to three counts of murder and one further count in a separate case, and was sentenced to 70 years. An Illinois prosecutor's letter written after the plea describes two killings: a girl in Wisconsin in August 1977 and Debra Sue Baker in Illinois in May 1978.
Most of the public record of his case concerns a long fight over the Illinois plea. He said he had been too ill and too heavily medicated to understand it, and that no one had told him he faced an extended prison term. By the time the federal courts looked at the claim, the transcript of the plea hearing had disappeared and the State of Illinois had destroyed the rest of his court file. In 2005 the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit sent the case back for a hearing, and a federal district judge in Illinois then rebuilt the lost hearing from the memories and notes of the lawyers who had been there.
Dalton was tried before a jury in Kenosha County in 1979. On October 31, 1979, he was convicted of first-degree murder, kidnapping by deceit and a third charge. The trial court sentenced him to life for the murder and to 15 years for the kidnapping, the terms to run consecutively. The Seventh Circuit later described the life sentence as one that carried eligibility for parole. His mother testified at the Kenosha trial after the Wisconsin court granted her immunity, according to the federal district court.
The Wisconsin Court of Appeals reviewed the case in 1980, in a decision reported as State v. Dalton, 98 Wis. 2d 725. The federal opinions do not name the Wisconsin victim. The Illinois prosecutor's letter, written in 1981, describes the case only as "the August 1977 murder of another girl."
After the trial, Wisconsin found that Dalton had mental and physical aberrations and was in need of specialized treatment, and committed him to Central State Hospital. The Seventh Circuit recorded that while he was there he repeatedly tried to kill himself and refused food for long periods, and that staff often had to restrain him and feed him by force.
While Dalton was still a patient at Central State, he was charged in Cook County, Illinois, with murder and a further offense. The Seventh Circuit called it an unrelated crime.
The Assistant State's Attorney who handled the case, Lawrence Hyman, later wrote the letter that went to the Illinois prison system with Dalton's commitment papers. It said that Debra Sue Baker had been killed by Dalton in Illinois in May 1978. Her body was found on May 24, 1978, and went unidentified for nearly a year. She was identified after Dalton was arrested in Waukegan, Illinois, on a separate charge involving a 14-year-old child. Little else is recorded about who Debra Sue Baker was, and her age was not reported.
Dalton arrived in Illinois on August 23, 1981. Two days later he tried to kill himself and was admitted to Cermak Hospital, the hospital serving the Cook County jail. At the request of his defense lawyer, Judge Thomas Maloney of the Circuit Court of Cook County ordered a clinical examination.
In September 1981 a prison psychiatrist diagnosed "schizophrenia paranoid type in remission" and prescribed Navane, an antipsychotic drug. Dr. Gerson Kaplan then examined him and found him fit to stand trial, and Judge Maloney found him fit on October 8, 1981. On November 18, 1981, two days before he entered his plea, Dalton tried again to kill himself. His lawyer did not ask for a new competency hearing.
On November 20, 1981, Dalton pleaded guilty before Judge Maloney to three counts of murder and one further count. His lawyer was Gerald Maupin, who practiced only criminal defense and represented him in both the Cook County case and a separate case pending in Lake County, Illinois.
Before the plea, Maupin asked for a conference with the judge under Illinois Supreme Court Rule 402, the rule that governs plea discussions. At that conference Hyman said that Dalton was eligible for the death penalty. The judge indicated a sentence of 70 years. Hyman kept notes on the back of the case file, which lawyers in Cook County called the "blue back," and those notes recorded the agreement: 70 years on the murder counts, concurrent with 30 years on the further count. They also noted that Dalton faced a possible 30-year sentence in the Lake County case.
Dalton received 70 years on each murder count and 30 years on the fourth count, all to run concurrently with each other and with his Wisconsin sentences. The 70-year term was an extended term under Illinois law, longer than the ordinary maximum for murder. Dalton's mother was in the courtroom. He did not file a direct appeal.
On March 30, 1989, Dalton filed a petition under the Illinois Post-Conviction Hearing Act. He argued that he had not pleaded guilty knowingly and voluntarily because he was under the influence of medication. In a letter dated February 2, 1992, the state said it could not find the transcript of the plea hearing. In 1995 Dalton raised a new argument: that he should have received 40 years, not 70, and that no one had told him he could get an extended term.
The circuit court denied the petition on October 24, 1995, without an evidentiary hearing. About three weeks later, on or about November 15, 1995, the State of Illinois destroyed the remaining circuit court records in the case while his appeal was pending. The Illinois Appellate Court allowed his appointed lawyer to withdraw, finding no issues of arguable merit, and the Illinois Supreme Court denied leave to appeal on December 4, 1996.
Dalton filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois on April 3, 1997, and an amended petition on November 16, 1998. The case was reassigned to Judge Amy J. St. Eve in 2002. On September 5, 2003, she denied the petition but allowed an appeal on one question: whether his plea was knowing and voluntary when, he said, he had not been told of the extended term.
The Seventh Circuit heard argument on June 8, 2004, and ruled on March 23, 2005, in an opinion by Judge Diane Wood, joined by Judges Frank Easterbrook and Michael Kanne. The court held that the maximum possible sentence, including an extended term, is a direct consequence of a guilty plea, so a defendant who did not know he could receive one would not have pleaded knowingly. Courts usually presume that a plea hearing was conducted properly, but the panel said that presumption should not apply where the transcript had disappeared and the state had destroyed the remaining records. It called the destruction of the file "troubling."
Dalton and his mother had both sworn affidavits saying that no one mentioned an extended term. His mother's affidavit said she "did not understand what was going on in the courtroom" and that "no one said anything about a[n] extended term for my son." The district court had set these aside as self-serving. The Seventh Circuit held that they were competent evidence, that Dalton had tried diligently to obtain his records, and that the facts had gone undeveloped through no fault of his own. It vacated the denial of relief on that claim and sent the case back for an evidentiary hearing. It refused to widen the appeal to his separate claim that his lawyer had failed him by not seeking a second competency hearing.
Judge St. Eve held the hearing on November 17, 2005. Dalton's mother had died by then, and her two affidavits, from 1996 and 1998, were admitted.
Hyman testified that Judge Maloney explained the extended sentence to Dalton at the plea hearing and told him the terms would be 70 years for the murders and 30 years on the other count, to run concurrently, although he could not recall the exact words used. His notes and the letter he wrote after the plea both recorded those numbers. Maupin testified that he passed the 70-year offer to Dalton, who wanted to accept it, and that the judge went through the required warnings before taking the plea. He did not recall using the words "extended term," but said that "70 years was the outside number." He also said he had discussed Dalton's eligibility for the death penalty with him.
Dalton testified that he had seen several psychiatrists, was taking Navane, and that his prescription had changed shortly before the plea. He said he understood the deal as 40 years for murder and 30 on the other count, explaining that "it's actually 70, but it's only really 40," and that he would not have pleaded guilty had he known the sentence was 70 years. He said he had mailed Maupin a letter asking him to appeal. The letter was dated "November 31, 1981," a date that does not exist; Maupin said he never received it, and it claimed incompetence rather than any problem with the sentence.
On December 16, 2005, Judge St. Eve found Hyman and Maupin credible and Dalton not credible. She noted that he shook and his voice quivered beyond ordinary nervousness, that he had a strong reason to lie because a successful claim could take 30 years off his sentence, that he had prior felony convictions, and that his 1989 petition mentioned the 70-year sentence without objecting to it. She gave little weight to his mother's affidavits, finding them biased and noting that they did not mention the 70-year term at all.
The judge also found his account hard to believe on its own terms. He had faced a possible death sentence, and the 70 years ran concurrently with a Wisconsin life sentence he was already serving; she described the agreement as "a bargain in the context of a death penalty case." She held that a judge taking a plea need not use the words "extended term" so long as the defendant is told the sentence he faces. Dalton had been told by both his lawyer and the judge that he would receive 70 years, so his plea was knowing and voluntary. She denied the petition.
At the time of that ruling Dalton was held at Oshkosh Correctional Institution in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
The federal court records describe two killings: the Wisconsin killing of a girl in August 1977, which went to a jury, and the Illinois killing of Debra Sue Baker in May 1978, to which he pleaded guilty. Neither opinion links him to any other death. The three Illinois murder counts were part of one case that the Seventh Circuit called "an unrelated crime," and the prosecutor's letter describes only the Baker killing; the records do not say how the three counts were divided.
The name of the Wisconsin victim does not appear in either opinion, and how either victim died is not stated.
August 1977: A girl is killed in Wisconsin; Dalton is later convicted of her murder.
May 1978: Debra Sue Baker is killed in Illinois.
May 24, 1978: Her body is found; it goes unidentified for nearly a year.
Date not given: Dalton is arrested in Waukegan, Illinois, on a separate charge, and Baker is then identified.
1979: He is tried in Kenosha County, Wisconsin; his mother testifies under a grant of immunity.
October 31, 1979: Convicted of first-degree murder, kidnapping by deceit and a further charge; life plus 15 years, consecutive. He is committed to Central State Hospital.
1980: The Wisconsin Court of Appeals decides State v. Dalton, 98 Wis. 2d 725.
August 23, 1981: Transferred to Illinois; two days later he is admitted to Cermak Hospital.
October 8, 1981: Judge Thomas Maloney finds him fit to stand trial.
November 18, 1981: He tries again to kill himself.
November 20, 1981: Pleads guilty in Cook County to three counts of murder and a further count; 70 years and 30 years, concurrent.
March 30, 1989: Files a post-conviction petition in Illinois.
February 2, 1992: The state says it cannot find the plea transcript.
October 24, 1995: The Cook County court denies the petition.
About November 15, 1995: Illinois destroys the remaining circuit court records.
December 4, 1996: The Illinois Supreme Court denies leave to appeal.
April 3, 1997: Federal habeas petition filed in the Northern District of Illinois.
September 5, 2003: Petition denied; appeal allowed on one claim.
March 23, 2005: The Seventh Circuit orders an evidentiary hearing.
November 17, 2005: Hearing before Judge Amy J. St. Eve.
December 16, 2005: Petition denied; Dalton held at Oshkosh Correctional Institution.