Legal Question in Criminal Law in Wisconsin

For certain detainees at Guantanamo Bay, the answer is that they might be held for the rest of their lives without being charged in any court of law, although most of them might eventually be prosecuted in some sort of a military tribunal. In garden variety criminal cases in WI, the answer is not too much more definite. Theoretically, a person could even be held for the rest of his life in WI without being charged, if, for example, he had dangerous enemies, was a government informant, and requested protective custody. If he were already in custody on other charges, he could also be held for the length of his sentence on those cases, without ever being charged with some new charge with may be under investigation. In normal WI prosecutions, however, defendants are normally either charged or released within about 48-72 hours or less. If they are held too long without being charged, an experienced criminal defense attorney can often use that fact to his client's advantage by either getting the charge dismissed due to constitutional violations, or getting evidence, such as confessions given during the illegal detention, suppressed.