Is Wisconsin a Sovereign State and what does that mean?

Question

Some one told me that if you commit a crime in one state and then flee to Wisconsin, nothing will happen to you. You can murder someone in Florida and then move to Wisconsin, and they cannot extradite you back to Florida... Is this true? And what the heck does sovereign state mean anyway? There is nothing on the net about WI being sovereign. Does that term even apply to the USA?

Answer 1

As a life long resident, and a police officer of 16 years, I can assure you there is nothing safe about Wisconsin if you flee here.

As far as the sovereign part, that is by definition someone having ultimate power, being above all others. None of the 50 states would fall into this category, especially since we all have an equal amount of Senators (2) representing us.

Answer 2

All US states are sovereign -- meaning they inherently have the ability to pass laws governing what happens inside the state -- as opposed to cities or counties, who only half such authority because the state allows them to.

And under Article IV of the US Constitution -- any state can request extradition of a criminal from any other state -- so, committing a crime in one state and fleeing to another does not get you off the hook.

But one state cannot prosecute crimes that happen solely in another state -- that is part of each state being sovereign.