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| Goya, Saturn Devouring His Son, painted sometime between 1819-1823. The image represents America today, as the country teeters on the brink. |
Of course, since America's birth popular liberty has been a lie for most living at a given moment. Those charged through history with keeping the faith of America as represented in rhetoric and myth, that is our fellow citizens, are typically ignorant, irrational and stupid, (Achen, Bartels).
Today, as contemptible as Trump and his white-supremacist followers are, one should note neo-liberals and Hillary Clinton have blazed the trail for Trumpists by promoting private prisons, mass incarceration, distribution of public resources to the one percent and unthinking corporatist tropes in politics.
On the up-side, a plurality of Americans reject neo-liberalism and fascism.
There are moments caught in American reporting that mark in iconic description the reality of American society. Wisconsin is at ground zero in hostility against democratic traditions with a strong ferment of pro-democratic institutions now under Republican-corporate attack.
Long Lake, No Wake
In Wisconsin in 2013, Kate Golden at the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Reporting took a famous shot looking out at Long Lake in central Wisconsin, (Plainfield, Waushara County), of a sign reading, "Long Lake, No Wake," surrounded by instead of water, dried-out weeds, trees next to ironic fishing-rules signage.
The proliferation of high-capacity water wells by Big Agriculture has depleted ground and surface waters, and lakes are literally drying up. Gov. Scott Walker and Republicans have worked specifically to make this crisis situation worse since 2011 with one Party objective being that multi-generational Wisconsin families become disgusted and leave the state.
Obama's Plan, White Slavery
In April 2009, Jesse Russell shot a small group of white Tea Party ralliers at the Wisconsin capitol in Madison. Russell captured a man holding a sign reading, "Obama's Plan, White Slavery."
The sign refers to the proposed 2009 Obamacare bill. No American white person was actually enslaved after the implementation of the Obamacare plan, but the sheer lunacy that drove opposition to Obama, and tame healthcare reforms led to the 2016 election of Trump, and was on display in Russell's iconic image, first published April 15, 2009 in The Lost Albatross.
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| An innocent woman was arrested and convicted because she is an out lesbian. Railroaded by deceitful Madison and Dane County police, found guilty by bigoted jurors, Penny Brummer remains in prison today. This is a crime committed by the state that no one wants to face. |
When movements for civil rights, equality, innocence met the Police State in Wisconsin in 1994, the Police State won in Brummer v. Wisconsin.
An innocent Madison woman, Penny Brummer, is in prison for 23 years now since former Dane County Judge Patrick Fiedler in October 1994 declared at the murder trial that circumstantial evidence is "strong enough to exclude to a moral certainty every reasonable hypothesis of the defendant's innocence." Fiedler is nuts.
A honest human being, not Fielder, would have rejected the jury's verdict. See Penny Brummer. See Brummer-Mal Contends, Lueders-Isthmus, Ricks-The Advocate, and the Huffington Post, Wisconsin State Journal.
One honest woman, a paralegal Sheila Berry, listened to her daughter who read about this outrage in The Advocate. "You should do something," Berry's daughter said.
Berry wrote a book, Who Killed Sarah? This reporting is momentous, and one hopes can save a life.
Shelia Berry is modern-day Émile Zola, a Sidney Powell, a pro-liberty human being who says innocents do not belong in prison, not ever.
By now, many readers have seen or heard of Making a Murderer, the tale of vengeful law enforcement hicks from Manitowoc County Wisconsin preying on an intellectually challenged juvenile and framing a man suing Manitowoc County for $36 million in a civil lawsuit for a wrongful conviction.
While shocking to some, the capacity and inclination of law enforcement to harass, arrest, prosecute and convict is axiomatic to most criminal defense attorneys, intellectually honest scholars and certainly those citizens on the receiving end of the blunt instrument known as law enforcement by the "Sovereign," the "state in all its power and glory," as described to me by federal appellate attorney, Sidney Powell, a former Asst. U.S. Attorney.
The victims of Manitowoc County, (a region in east-central Wisconsin from which I hail), are a victims, a disgrace wrought by law enforcement.
But the progressive fountain of Dane County Wisconsin (Madison) is arguably worse than Manty County in the criminal justice realm.
Folks, we live in a police-prosecutor-prison state, (and its existence is a compelling argument for a coalition of the American libertarian right and left)
I present to you one Penny Brummer, an out lesbian who joined the military right of River Valley High School in Spring Green, Wisconsin and served honorably in the Air Force for five years before returning home and then moving to Madison in the early 1990s.
In her mid-20s, Penny fell in and out of love, drank beer and bar-hopped, rode motorcycles, living her life in a similar fashion to most young 20-somethings in Madison, Wisconsin.
In the early to late 1990s, Madison was not a welcoming place for the LGBTQ community by Madison law enforcement, whatever you may have heard about Madison being an progressive oasis with an enlightened police force.
Police harassment and hostility were tolerated by progressives and to this day, for example, the former Club 3054 on East Washington Street, the main drag in Madison, is recalled for targeting by the cops by former patrons.
So it was one March 15, 1994, after Penny broke up with her girlfriend, and looking for company called friends and co-workers to "go out" on a Monday night. Sarah Gonstead said, yes, and Ms. Gonstead and Penny happily bar-hopped before Penny dropped Gonstead off at a frequented short-cut to her ex’s place, where Penny saw Gonstead strike up a conversation with some guys next to a line of motorcycles, one of the men with long hair and slight build.
No one saw Sarah Gonstead alive again.
Gonstead’s body was found on April 9 outside of Madison.
Madison police and the Dane County Sheriff’s detectives decided Penny, 24-years-old, was the perpetrator.
No physical evidence, no weapon, no motive, no determined crime scene, just a half-baked theory about lesbians being violent—police "tunnel vision," disregarding all exculpatory facts and evidence that would not support or disconfirm the theory.
For example,as recounted by Sheila Berry in her book, Who Killed Sarah:
David Zoromski, who reported seeing a suspicious man standing by the open passenger door of a parked pickup truck exactly where Sarah’s body was later found, was told by a Dane County Sheriff’s Deputy, ‘What you saw is all very interesting, but we have a suspect and it doesn’t fit.’ The man seen by Mr. Zoromski matched the description of the person Penny said she saw Sarah talking to near the Taco Bell at East Washington Avenue and North Oak Street in Madison, [by the short-cut], after she dropped her off that night. Police identified him and knew he was a convicted felon with a long history of violence toward women — but they never followed up on this lead.
A new trial for Penny Brummer is demanded by advocates. They also offer a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person(s) responsible for the death of Sarah Gonstead, and an 800 number for tips at 800 407-1178.
Brummer today sits in prison serving her 50-year sentence.
Prof. Keith Findley of the Wisconsin Innocence Project concludes in a column in the Washington Post after Making a Murderer hit the public consciousness: "We must make the system more responsive to post-conviction claims of injustice and less bound by blind obedience to finality."
Blind obedience is the norm in American society.
No jurist, journalist, or Brummer family member believes the kangaroo trial of 1994 could happen today, 23 years later at a time when we want to believe bigotry trumps an unthinking police state that could allow the Brummer persecution to occur.
The police investigation was replete with anti-lesbian bigotry playing a big part in Penny's conviction, and is a case study of confirmation bias.
Several jurors, a full nine members, expressed disapproval of lesbian and gay relationships in jury questionnaires.
Police investigators questioned Penny's co-workers about her body language, 'how she carried herself at work;' her persona apparently appearing unladylike behavior in an atavistic conception of gender types.
From 2015:
Madison, Wisconsin media—WISC-TV (Madison), WKOW-TV(Madison)—and advocates for Brummer heavily covered the news of the $10,000 reward as a private investigator, Rikki Glen, continues an ongoing investigation
Rikki Glen, Penny's mother, Nancy Brummer, and John Pray of the Wisconsin Innocence Project held a press conference yesterday, (December 2015), in front of the Dane County Courthouse.
"The evidence [in the Brummer case] was beyond, beyond thin," said Ms. Glen at the press conference.
The reward for the 21-year old conviction in Brummer v. Wisconsin comes as Dane County has made strides in combating LGBTQ bigotry, and after the win-convictions-for-reason-of-advancing-careers dynamic in the legal community in Wisconsin and Dane County resulted in incarcerations that shamed the criminal justice system.
"Today, we are a more enlightened community than 20 years ago, and Nancy Brummer, and advocates are optimistic that champions for truth will come forward and our community, police and prosecutors will stand up for truth and free Penny Brummer," said Glen.
Said John Pray of the Wisconsin Innocence Project at the press conference:
It's been over 20 years since Penny Brummer has been convicted of the murder of Sarah Gonstead. It's a very long time and it's been a very difficult 20 years for Penny, for the family, and for her friends and many supporters. In 1994 when Penny was convicted this country was at the beginning of a revolution in the criminal justice system. This revolution was brought about by the first uses of DNA which led to the formation of the Innocence movement. At that time, for the first time, we all became very aware of the indisputable fact that it is possible to convict people of serious crimes—murder, sex assaults—and be completely innocent. We've also learned that this happens a lot more than we are comfortable with and a lot more than we ever thought was possible. In the years since then, we've seen 100s of examples where DNA evidence has proved beyond any doubt the system has grievously erred and that the wrong person was in prison. A number of those people are from Wisconsin. Wisconsin is not immune from that. Some of those people served decades in prison before they were proved innocent. In many of those cases DNA led not only to the release of the innocent person but to the arrest and conviction of the actual murderer or the actual perpetrator who have, by the way, gone on to commit other serious crimes because they have been let free.
We learn from these exonerations what went wrong with the system. And for the most part it isn't because there are evil police and prosecutors who are trying to get it wrong. They're generally good people, they're trying to solve crimes and serve justice. But even when people are acting in good faith there are still many ways that things can go tragically wrong: Eyewitness identification is often unreliable. Witnesses' memories are prone to mistakes. Investigators can prematurely arrive at conclusions that are incorrect and then focus on information that supports those plots and conclusions and disregard other information that comes in that does not support those conclusions. That's a process called 'tunnel vision.' And it can and it does lead to conviction of the innocent. Penny's case features many of these same features.
Below is the statement on Penny Brummer read by private investigator, Rikki Glen at the press conference held yesterday:
I'm Rikki Glen, a Wisconsin licensed private investigator retained by advocates challenging the wrongful conviction of Penny Brummer."Hope springs eternal in the human breast," said Alexander Pope in his An Essay on Man (1734). Hope for decency.
I am going to read a short statement about why we are here today, followed by statements from Penny's mother, Nancy and John Pray from the UW Innocence Project.
If you have questions we will be glad to try and answer them after we have finished.
Twenty years ago, Penny Brummer was convicted of killing Sarah Gonstead despite no weapon, no forensic evidence, no motive, and no evidence of any kind tying Brummer to the undetermined crime scene. It has long been asserted that anti-lesbian bias played a large part in Penny's conviction.
When I was asked to help with this case, earlier this year, I had a vague recollection of what transpired. As I was reading through the police reports I was shocked and bothered by some of the things that I read.
For instance, there was an alternate suspect. After Penny dropped off Sarah she saw her talking with some people. Penny remembered seeing an old gray van with distinctive bug eye windows. A few days later, Penny was looking for the van when she spotted it not far from the 3054 Club and Taco Bell. Penny gave the license number to her friend's mother, who turned it over to police. The license traced back to a person who had a long record of felonies against women. He admitted he frequented the area where Penny saw him talking to Sarah, and he said that he was the only one who ever drove his vehicle. His driver's license was revoked at the time, so it was a crime for him to drive, but police didn't seem to notice that. He was interviewed briefly, told them he wasn't at that location on March 14th, and that ended the interview.
Police clearly had 'tunnel vision' in building a case against Penny, another common feature in wrongful convictions.
Another example a witness came forward and reported seeing a suspicious man standing by the open passenger door of a parked pickup truck exactly where Sarah's body was later found. This suspicious man matched the description of the person Penny said she saw Sarah talking to near the Taco Bell at East Washington Avenue and North Oak Street in Madison. He also noticed what looked to him to be a pink duffle bag on the ground next to the truck. Sarah was wearing a pink jacket when she disappeared. The police told the witness 'This is all very interesting, but we already have a suspect, and this doesn't fit.'
Today, I announce that a $10,000 reward has been established for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the killer of Sarah Gonstead. Advocates have set up a new toll-free number, (800) 407-1178, for tipsters seeking the $10,000 reward.
A decent and honest district attorney's office, we believe, will not defend this prosecution, because today we are a more enlightened community than 20 years ago, and Nancy Brummer, and advocates are optimistic that champions for truth will come forward and our community, police and prosecutors will stand up for truth and free Penny Brummer.
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