Wisconsin does not have one thing called “a felony.” It has nine of them, graded A through I under Wis. Stat. § 939.50, and the letter on the charging document does more work than almost anything else in the case. It sets the maximum. It decides whether the record can ever be cleared. It decides how much of the State’s evidence you are entitled to see and when. And at the top two tiers it changes what a defense actually consists of.
Cafferty, Scheidegger & Johnson, S.C. has defended serious felonies in Racine, Kenosha and Walworth counties since 1994, including more than 50 trials involving homicide charges in state and federal court. This piece is not a pitch. It is the explanation people ask us for on the first phone call: what does the class mean, and what changes at the top of the ladder.
The nine classes, in one table
| Class | Maximum imprisonment | Maximum fine |
|---|---|---|
| A | Life | None stated in the statute |
| B | 60 years | No fine authorized |
| C | 40 years | $100,000 |
| D | 25 years | $100,000 |
| E | 15 years | $50,000 |
| F | 12 years 6 months | $25,000 |
| G | 10 years | $25,000 |
| H | 6 years | $10,000 |
| I | 3 years 6 months | $10,000 |
Two structural points that the table does not show.
Every prison sentence short of life is bifurcated. For felonies committed on or after December 31, 1999, Wisconsin sentences under truth in sentencing: when the court sends someone to state prison it imposes a total term under Wis. Stat. § 973.01 and splits it into initial confinement followed by extended supervision. The confinement portion is served day for day. There is no good-time reduction and no discretionary parole release on the front end. When people hear “40 years” they often assume half of it evaporates. It does not.
The split is not free-form. Section 973.01(2)(b) caps the confinement portion by class (40 years for Class B, 25 for C, 15 for D, 10 for E, 7 years 6 months for F, 5 for G, 3 for H, and 1 year 6 months for I), with a floor of one year. And § 973.01(2)(d) provides that the term of extended supervision “may not be less than 25 percent of the length of the term of confinement in prison imposed under par. (b).” Each class’s confinement cap plus its supervision cap adds up exactly to the § 939.50 maximum, which is a useful way to sanity-check any number a person is quoted.
Class A is different in kind, not degree. Section 973.01(3) takes life sentences out of bifurcation entirely, and it is keyed to a felony “punishable by life imprisonment” rather than to the Class A label: such a person “is not subject to this section but shall be sentenced under s. 973.014 (1g).” A Class A felony does not carry a 40-year or 60-year exposure that a judge can move within. It carries life.
Class A: life is the sentence, not the ceiling
In Wisconsin, first-degree intentional homicide under Wis. Stat. § 940.01 is the principal Class A felony, and a conviction means life imprisonment. There is no lower discretionary term for the judge to select.
What the judge does decide, under Wis. Stat. § 973.014, is the release question. For an offense committed today, § 973.014(1g)(a) gives the court exactly three options:
- The person is eligible for release to extended supervision after serving 20 years.
- The person is eligible on a date the court sets, which may be no earlier than 20 years.
- The person is not eligible for release to extended supervision at all.
There is no parole in that framework. (For offenses committed between July 1, 1988 and December 30, 1999, the earlier version of the statute at § 973.014(1) uses parole language instead, so the offense date has to be checked before anyone relies on a release theory.)
That determination is the entire sentencing contest in a Class A case. It is why a guilty plea to § 940.01 gives away more leverage than a plea in any other Wisconsin case: it locks in life while surrendering the intent litigation and the mitigation record that the § 973.014 decision is built from. Our first-degree intentional homicide page goes through the elements and the defenses in detail.
Class B: sixty years, and the tier fight that decides the case
Class B is where most of Wisconsin’s serious violent-crime litigation actually happens, because Class B is where a case lands when the State cannot prove, or agrees not to press, the element that makes it Class A.
Three of the most common Class B charges show the pattern:
- Second-degree intentional homicide, Wis. Stat. § 940.05. Same intent to kill as first degree. What makes it second degree is a mitigating circumstance under § 940.01(2), and the statute names four of them: adequate provocation, unnecessary defensive force, prevention of felony, and coercion or necessity. Establishing any one of them moves a mandatory life sentence to a 60-year maximum.
- First-degree reckless homicide, Wis. Stat. § 940.02, including the drug-delivery variant at § 940.02(2). The contested element is usually “utter disregard for human life,” which separates it from second-degree reckless homicide, a Class D felony with a 25-year maximum.
- First-degree sexual assault, Wis. Stat. § 940.225(1). The aggravators (great bodily harm, a dangerous weapon, two or more actors aiding) are what separate it from second degree, a Class C felony.
Notice what all three have in common. The fight is not usually “did anything happen.” It is which statute the conduct actually satisfies. In a top-tier felony the most valuable motion practice and the most valuable trial work are often aimed at the tier rather than at outright acquittal, because moving one class can be the difference between life and a term a person can survive.
Six things that change at the top of the ladder
1. Expungement stops existing
Wisconsin expungement under Wis. Stat. § 973.015(1m)(a)1. has two gates, and a top-tier felony fails both. The person must have been under the age of 25 at the time of the offense, and the offense must carry a maximum period of imprisonment of six years or less, which stops at Class H. A Class G felony is already outside it. Class A and Class B are not remotely close. Even inside the six-year ceiling, § 973.015(1m)(a)3. bars expungement of a Class H or I felony where the person has a prior felony conviction or the offense is a “violent offense” as defined in § 301.048(2)(bm). There is no later petition and no clean-record path for a serious felony conviction. See our Wisconsin expungement page for what remains possible when expungement is not.
2. The preliminary hearing is worth having
Every Wisconsin felony defendant is entitled to a preliminary examination under Wis. Stat. § 970.02(1)(c) unless it is waived in writing or in open court. The hearing runs under Wis. Stat. § 970.03. It is not a trial and the standard is low: probable cause to believe a felony has been committed by the defendant. The timing runs from the initial appearance, and it is not one deadline but two: 20 days where the defendant has been released from custody, and 10 days where the defendant is in custody and bail has been fixed in excess of $500, extendable on stipulation or for cause. On a Class H case, waiving the hearing is often a reasonable trade. On a Class A or B case it is frequently the first and only pretrial opportunity to put a State witness under oath, on the record, before the account has been polished, and to lock in testimony that a suppression motion or a trial cross-examination will later use.
3. Bail is analyzed under a different rule
The constitutional amendment Wisconsin voters approved on April 4, 2023, and its implementing legislation, 2023 Wisconsin Act 3, added a second basis for cash bail: under Wis. Stat. § 969.01(1)(b)2., where the defendant is accused of a violent crime, there must be a reasonable basis to believe bail is necessary based on the totality of the circumstances. “Violent crime” is a statutory list at Wis. Stat. § 969.001(3), and it has been amended since 2023, so the current text is what governs rather than the version Act 3 enacted. The list includes the homicides, the sexual assaults at § 940.225(1), (2) and (3), strangulation and suffocation under § 940.235, and false imprisonment under § 940.30. The practical effect at the top of the ladder is that the bond argument is a real evidentiary argument, not a formality. We wrote about how that framework actually works in what “no cash bail” really means.
4. The evidence stops fitting in a folder
A Class H felony file might be a complaint, a report, and forty minutes of body-cam. A homicide or a serious sexual assault file is autopsy and pathology material, crime-lab DNA reports with underlying bench notes, cell-site and device-extraction data, jail-call audio measured in days, and multiple rounds of discovery under Wis. Stat. § 971.23. The defense work that matters is the part nobody sees: reading the underlying data rather than the summary, and knowing which expert can say why the summary is wrong.
5. Experts stop being optional
Serious felony defense at this tier routinely requires retained specialists: forensic pathology, accident reconstruction, toxicology, firearms and tool-mark examination, digital forensics, and in sexual-assault matters an independent review of the full SANE record rather than the summary sheet. Budgeting for that work is part of the engagement, and it is a fair question to ask any firm you interview.
6. For sex offenses, the registry is a separate sentence
A sexual-assault conviction carries consequences that run in parallel to the prison term, principally registration under Wis. Stat. § 301.45, with reporting duties that can cover address, employment, school, vehicles and online identifiers, and a separate felony charge for failing to comply. The tier matters enormously here. Under § 301.45(5)(b)1m., a conviction for first or second degree sexual assault under Wis. Stat. § 940.225(1) or (2) carries lifetime registration, as do convictions under § 948.02(1) or (2), § 948.025 and § 948.085(2). Third degree, a Class G felony, sits on the standard track, where the reporting period generally runs 15 years from discharge from probation, parole or extended supervision, with a fallback in § 301.45(5)(a)4. measured 15 years from the date of conviction or disposition, whichever is later. Fourth degree, at § 940.225(3m), is a Class A misdemeanor and is not on the registrable list at § 301.45(1d)(b), although a court can still order registration where it finds the offense was sexually motivated. A court may also impose lifetime supervision under Wis. Stat. § 939.615, which is discretionary, requires advance notice under § 973.125, and requires the court to determine that lifetime supervision is necessary to protect the public. Registration exposure has to be analyzed before any plea discussion, because the difference between a registerable and a non-registerable statute is often the most consequential term in a negotiation. Our sexual assault defense page covers that analysis.
How homicide and sexual assault defense differ in practice
They are both top-tier, and they are not the same job.
A homicide case is usually a case about mechanism and mental state. Identity is sometimes contested, but far more often the litigated questions are causation, intent versus recklessness, and self-defense under Wis. Stat. § 939.48. The defense is built out of physical evidence, timelines, scene reconstruction and expert testimony, and the decisive rulings are frequently about lesser-included instructions, because the jury’s choice between § 940.01 and § 940.05 is the whole sentencing outcome.
A sexual assault case is usually a case about consent, credibility and corroboration. The physical evidence often proves something nobody disputes. The contested ground is the account: its consistency across the first report, the SANE narrative, the messages before and after, and the trial testimony. The defense is built out of digital records, other-acts litigation, confrontation issues, and disciplined cross-examination. It also involves an evidentiary regime that homicide practice does not have, including Wisconsin’s rape-shield framework, which governs what can and cannot be asked.
Both require a firm that has actually tried cases to verdict, because the negotiating position in a top-tier felony is largely a function of whether the State believes the case will be tried.
Choosing counsel for a top-tier felony
No Wisconsin lawyer is permitted to tell you they are the best one, so ask questions with checkable answers. These work on any firm, including ours:
- How many cases at this charge class have you taken to verdict, and in which counties?
- Who on the team actually tries the case, and will I meet that person before I sign?
- What experts do you anticipate, and how are their fees handled?
- Will you litigate the preliminary hearing or waive it, and why?
- What is the fee, in writing, and what does it not include?
A firm that answers question one with a category rather than a number is telling you something.
If you or a family member is facing a Class A or Class B felony in Racine, Kenosha or Walworth County, contact the firm for a free initial consultation, or call (262) 632-5000. The offices are at 840 Lake Avenue in Racine and 7001 30th Avenue in Kenosha, and the phone is answered around the clock.
Related reading: Homicide defense · Sexual assault defense · Federal criminal defense · Appeals, parole and probation · Racine County criminal court guide · Kenosha County criminal court guide
This article describes Wisconsin law as of August 16, 2026. It is general information, not legal advice about any specific case, and it does not describe or predict the result of any particular matter.