Steven Avery

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This article is about the convict from Wisconsin. For the Major League Baseball pitcher, see Steve Avery. For the American football player, see Steve Avery (American football).
Steven A Avery
Born (1962-07-09) July 9, 1962 (age 62)
Manitowoc County, Wisconsin, United States
Nationality American
Occupation Inmate
Criminal penalty Life imprisonment without parole
Criminal status Incarcerated at Waupun Correctional Institution
Parent(s) Allan Avery
Dolores Avery
Conviction(s) Sexual assault (exonerated, 2003)
First degree murder

Steven Avery (born July 9, 1962) is an American man from Manitowoc County, Wisconsin, who served 18 years in prison for a sexual assault conviction in 1985, maintaining his innocence. Aided by the Innocence Project, he was exonerated when improved DNA testing of evidence found a match with another man.[1] He was released from prison on September 11, 2003.[2]

In 2005, Avery was arrested for the murder of Wisconsin photographer Teresa Halbach.[3] He was convicted in 2007 and sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. He has exhausted his appeals at the state level. In January 2016, a new team of defense attorneys was announced, with Kathleen Zellner taking on his case.

Avery's legal trials, particularly the second case and its related issues, are the focus of the Netflix original documentary Making a Murderer (2015), a 10-episode series directed by Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos [4]

Background

Avery was born and grew up in Manitowoc County, Wisconsin, the son of Dolores and Allan Avery.[citation needed] He has several siblings. He attended local schools in Manitowoc County. After high school he worked at his family's auto salvage yard.[citation needed]

At age 18, Avery was charged with burglarizing a bar with a friend and sentenced to two years in prison. The sentence was stayed and instead Avery served ten months in the Manitowoc County Jail, was placed on probation for five years, and was ordered to pay restitution.[5] When he was 20, Avery and another man were convicted of animal cruelty for pouring gasoline and oil on Avery's cat and throwing it into a fire; he was sentenced to prison for nine months.[5] In 1985, Avery was charged with assaulting his cousin after he ran her off the road at gunpoint. The cousin, the wife of a part-time Manitowoc County sheriff's deputy, had complained that Avery had exposed himself when she drove past his house.[5] Avery was sentenced to six years for endangering the safety of another person.[6][7]

In 1985 Avery was convicted of first-degree sexual assault, attempted first degree murder, and false imprisonment of Penny Beerntsen.[8] He maintained his innocence, but served 18 years in prison on these charges, served concurrently with the term for the endangering safety charge.

The Wisconsin Innocence Project took Avery's case. As a result of improvements in DNA testing, they were able to gain exoneration of Avery in 2003 based on DNA evidence.[1] The DNA was matched to Gregory Allen, who was already serving a 60-year prison sentence.[9]

After Avery was released from prison in 2003, his case attracted widespread attention. A state legislator promoted legislation to prevent wrongful convictions. Avery filed a $36 million federal lawsuit against Manitowoc County, its former sheriff, Thomas Kocourek, and its former district attorney, Denis Vogel. On October 31, 2005, the state legislature passed the Avery Bill, which aimed to prevent wrongful convictions. The bill has since been renamed the "criminal justice reforms bill".[10]

Halbach murder

Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. On October 31, 2005, photographer Teresa Halbach was scheduled to meet with Steven Avery at his home on the grounds of Avery's Auto Salvage to photograph his sister's minivan for a sales ad in Auto Trader Magazine. She went missing the same day.

On November 11, Avery was charged with the murder of Halbach after her car and charred bone fragments were found at the salvage yard. He maintained that authorities were attempting to frame him for Halbach's disappearance, to make it harder for him to win his pending civil case regarding the false sexual assault conviction. To avoid a conflict of interest, Mark R. Rohrer, the Manitowoc County district attorney, requested that authorities from neighboring Calumet County lead the investigation. Manitowoc County Sheriff's Department officials remained involved in the case, however, participating in searches of Avery's trailer, garage and property, leading to accusations of tampering with evidence.[citation needed] Ken Kratz, the district attorney of Calumet County, was assigned as special prosecutor in the case, and Manitowoc County Circuit Court Judge Patrick Willis presided over the trial.

On March 2, 2006, Avery's nephew, Brendan Dassey, was charged with being a party to first-degree intentional homicide, mutilation of a corpse, and first-degree sexual assault after confessing to investigators; he was later convicted in a separate trial.[11] Dassey's attorneys have since asked for him to be released, or given another trial. They say that his constitutional rights were violated due to ineffective assistance of counsel and an involuntary confession.[12]

On March 18, 2007, Avery was found guilty of murdering Halbach, not guilty of mutilating a corpse, and guilty of illegally possessing a firearm. On June 1, 2007, he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the murder of Halbach. He was also sentenced to 5 years for felony possession of a firearm, to run concurrently with the murder sentence. Initially housed at the Wisconsin Secure Program Facility in Boscobel, he was moved in 2012 to the Waupun Correctional Institution in Waupun.[13][14]

One of the jurors in Avery's trial was the father of a Manitowoc County Sheriff's deputy, and another juror's wife was a Manitowoc County clerk.[15][relevant? – discuss] Juror Richard Mahler, who was excused from the trial after the jury had begun deliberations because of a family emergency (his daughter was involved in a car accident), later commented on the trial and verdict. He said that in an early vote seven of the jurors voted not guilty, and he is mystified as to how the jury eventually agreed on a guilty verdict.[15] Another juror allegedly told the filmmakers of Making a Murderer that they were intimidated into returning a guilty verdict, as they feared for their safety.[16]

In August 2011, a state appeals court denied Avery's appeal for a new trial.[17][18] The Wisconsin Supreme Court declined to hear his case.[citation needed]

On January 12, 2016, attorney Kathleen Zellner announced that her Chicago-area firm would be representing Avery. She will be assisted by Tricia Bushnell, legal director of the Midwest Innocence Project.[19]

In popular culture

On March 26, 2013, the public radio program Radiolab aired an episode titled "Are You Sure?"[20] which featured a 24-minute segment entitled "Reasonable Doubt"[21] It explored the story of Steven Avery from the perspective of Penny Beerntsen, the woman he was falsely convicted of sexually assaulting in 1985.[22]

Making a Murderer

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Main article: Making a Murderer

On December 18, 2015, Netflix released Making a Murderer, a 10-episode original documentary series which recounts Avery's story.[23] The documentary "examines allegations of police and prosecutorial misconduct, evidence tampering and witness coercion."[4]

On December 20, 2015, a petition was created at petitions.whitehouse.gov titled "Investigate and pardon the Averys in Wisconsin and punish the corrupt officials who railroaded these innocent men".[24] On December 22, 2015, the Innocence Project issued a statement that "a member of the Innocence Network is currently looking into some aspects of his case".[25][26]

On January 7, 2016, the White House responded to the petition, stating that, since Avery and Dassey "are both state prisoners, the President cannot pardon them. A pardon in this case would need to be issued at the state level by the appropriate authorities."[27][28]

A second petition, titled "Initiate a Federal Investigation of the Sheriff's Offices of Manitowoc County and Calumet County, Wisconsin", was submitted to petitions.whitehouse.gov on January 7, 2016.[29]

Governor Scott Walker has said that he would not be pardoning Avery.[30]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. 19 March 2007
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found..
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Kurt Chandler. "Blood Simple". Milwaukee Magazine, May 1, 2006. Retrieved January 11, 2016.
  6. ↑ Avery's attorney in Making a Murderer Netflix documentary
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Michael Griesbach. "The wronged guy". The Isthmus, February 17, 2011. Retrieved January 11,2016.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. 19 November 2005
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ Allison Piwowarski. "Which Jail Is Steven Avery In? The 'Making A Murderer' Subject Isn't Far From Home". Bustle. Retrieved January 12, 2016.
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 Fowler, Tara. (05 January 2016). "Dismissed Steven Avery Juror Tells PEOPLE Jury Members Were Related to a Local Cop and a County Employee", People Magazine. Retrieved 05 January 2016.
  16. ↑ Stump, Scott. (05 January 2016). "'Making a Murderer' filmmakers: Original juror believes Steven Avery was framed"', Today Show. Retrieved 05 January 2016.
  17. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ Jan Cummings. "KC lawyer to join ‘Making a Murderer’ case’s defense team". The Kansas City Star, January 9, 2016. Retrieved January 12, 2016.
  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  21. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  22. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  23. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  24. ↑ Jefferson Grubbs. "People Want To Help Steven Avery After 'Making A Murderer' Debuts On Netflix", Bustle, December 21, 2015. Accessed December 30, 2015.
  25. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  26. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  27. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  28. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  29. ↑ "New petition calls for federal investigation into Halbach murder". NBC26, January 8, 2016. Retrieved January 12, 2016.
  30. ↑ Alex Johnson, "Gov. Scott Walker Says No Pardon for 'Making a Murderer' Subject Steven Avery", NBC News, 11 January 2016, accessed 12 January 2016

Further reading

  • Griesbach, Michael. The Innocent Killer: A True Story of a Wrongful Conviction. Chicago: American Bar Association, 2014.

External links

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