Showing posts with label DNA litigation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label DNA litigation. Show all posts

Feb 18, 2019

UK Singer Offers a Bluesy Howl for Steven Avery — Wrongfully Convicted

Advocates working
for the wrongfully
convicted in
Wisconsin loom
large in UK media
and social action.

Wake Up Wisconsin, Noone Wants You Sleeping


Madison, Wisconsin — What does one do when the new Wisconsin Attorney General functions like the odious sex offender, ex-DA Ken Kratz, complicit in destroying evidence and lying to a state appellate Court?

The Making a Murderer case in Wisconsin has birthed a social movement, world-wide.

Steven Avery supporter, Diane of the UK, evoking immediate comparison to Amy Winehouse, sings a powerful blues number in support of Avery and Dassey this weekend.

Watching a crucifixion accomplished by dishonest, miserable people covering up a state crime has this social movement continually asking: What next?

There is no depth to which Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul will not sink to protect wrongful convictions and criminal misconduct of law enforcement.

The loss, the death and where this saga ends is a mystery.
Amazing woman, amazing voice.

No advocate of the wrongfully convicted Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey has not gone through a moment of disgust seething into hopelessness over the conduct of Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul, and the bunch of corrupt Wisconsin jurists and cops, with little dissent.

Write Josh Kaul, and inform the little shit what you think of his unethical conduct in post-conviction litigation, Avery v. Wisconsin.
 
Wisconsin Dept of Justice
Attorney General Josh Kaul
PO Box 7857 Madison,
WI 53707-7857

What Kaul and Kratz and company have inflicted onto Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey sustains the most grotesque description of the Wisconsin criminal justice system as a lawless caricature, driven by careerism, political convenience against ethics and state statute.

Kaul and his staff are continually lying to the Court in a desperate effort to avoid discussion how they destroyed evidence, or gave animal bones — animal bones — and assured a grieving family, this is Teresa's body.

The state's explanation changes, depending to whom they are telling their lies.

Said Avery's co-counsel at the 2007 murder trial, commenting as an observer on current post-conviction litigation:

"In layman’s terms: State wants to avoid a hearing on this where they have to explain why they gave to [murder victim Teresa] Halbach family quarry bones that [Ken Kratz] KK claimed at trial were non-human. KZ wants to prove with new DNA technique they were [ Teresa Halbach] TH, as further proof she wasn’t burned at [Steven Avery] SA’s property."


Each state lie, each illegal state act begets another.
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Jan 29, 2019

Wisconsin Keeps Innocents in Prison — Knowingly, in Disregard of Truth

Wisconsin's Dept of Justice will decide if it will pursue truth
in post-conviction litigation of two men wrongfully
convicted, featured in Making a Murderer.
Madison, Wisconsin — There is a waiting game in progress in Wisconsin. The stakes are life-and-death.

Wisconsin is waiting for an answer to grave questions.

Will new Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul (D) work to shine light on an injustice, two wrongful convictions featured in the Making a Murderer docuseries?

Will Kaul defend the indefensible course of action of Wisconsin, blocking and delaying action on the product of police misconduct, what any rational observer knows is the wrongful conviction of two men by corrupt Wisconsin law enforcement?

Post-conviction attorney Kathleen Zellner —  who represents the wrongfully convicted Steven Avery featured in the Making a Murderer docuseries —  filed an explosive motion Jan 24, 2019 seeking a hearing because the Calumet County Sheriff's Office secretly transferred evidence of a murder victim, Teresa Halbach, to private custody in 2011, in clear violation of state statutes that govern preservation of physical evidence collected, subject to criminal investigations.

Will Kaul act in accordance with case law, the United States Constitution and the cause of justice? I have no idea. Noone does.

But I have lived in Wisconsin all my life.

I know public officials have a deep capacity to act from perceived concerns of convenience and ease of career, a Wisconsin commitment that would shame the worst of Oklahoma, Georgia and the rest of the deep south.
Here's a link to the motion Jan 24, 2019.

Now, we wait. But Steven Avery is not the only one on trial. Josh Kaul is on trial every bit as much.

From Kelly Wynne in Newsweek:


Bones that could have been tested for DNA in the case of Steven Avery have been returned to Teresa Halbach’s family, though it’s unclear if the bones were hers. Wrongful convictions attorney Kathleen Zellner filed a motion to have the bones tested in December, but that motion was quickly denied.

Zellner filed a second motion Thursday, which asserts the state violated Avery’s 14th amendment rights by denying DNA testing and failing to inform Avery’s prior legal council that the bones would be returned to Halbach’s family. The motion argues this amounts to an attempt by the state to 'destroy evidence' in the case.

The motion claims the bones were returned to the Halbach family in September 2011 at the Wieting Funeral Home by the Calumet County Sheriffs Department.

As seen on Making A Murderer, the bones in question were found in the Manitawoc gravel pit, off of the Avery property. Much of Avery’s conviction was based on forensic evidence found on his property, according to the motion. Zellner explained if Halbach's bones were found in another location, it would negate the state’s arguments about how and where Halbach was killed, possibly clearing Avery’s name. The bones have never been tested for DNA.

The decision to give the bones to the Halbach family is in violation of Wisconsin’s 'preservation statute,' Zellner told Newsweek.

'We are very curious to hear the State’s explanation for violating the Wisconsin preservation statute,' she said. 'No notice was given to Avery or his attorneys at the time. The State claimed at trial there was no evidence the quarry bones were human, so why were they given back to the Halbachs? Giving the bones to the Halbachs confirms the State’s belief that not only were they human—they belonged to Teresa Halbach. The State cannot have it both ways. The destruction of material evidence is a serious constitutional violation.' 

The trial of Avery was a feast of lies and perjury committed by cops.

The Appleton Post-Crescent reports:
The attorneys argued that the appeal should be temporarily halted so the case can be sent back to the circuit court to determine if Avery's due process rights were violated. The motion came a little more than a week before a deadline for Avery's attorneys to file a brief before the Wisconsin Court of Appeals.

A spokesperson with the Wisconsin Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

According to Avery's attorneys, the state violated the law by failing to preserve certain suspected human bone evidence and failing to notify Avery and his attorneys of the state's intent to destroy it.

At trial, the state told the jury that all of the incriminating forensic evidence was in close proximity to Mr. Avery's residence and that bones found in his burn pit were the most important evidence against Avery, they wrote in the motion.

Jerome Buting, one of Avery's defense attorneys at trial, countered that bones found in the nearby Manitowoc County gravel pit were also important, but were glossed over by then-Calumet County District Attorney Ken Kratz because they didn't fit with the state's theory of Avery's guilt.

Kratz dismissed defense attorneys' claim that those bones were human, saying it had not been scientifically verified, Zellner and Richards wrote in their motion.

However, by giving the bones back to Halbach's family, the state implicitly admitted that they were human and belong to Halbach, they wrote.

The identification of the Manitowoc County Gravel Pit bone fragments as Ms. Halbach's is material because it is apparently exculpatory and potentially useful in proving the murder and mutilation did not occur in a location tied exclusively to Mr. Avery, Zellner and Richards wrote. No reasonable trier of fact could conclude that, if Mr. Avery murdered and mutilated Ms. Halbach in the Manitowoc County Gravel Pit, he would move her bones from the gravel pit to his own burn pit and thereby incriminate himself.

If this latest motion were filed before an unbiased and rational state appellate court, this would be an explosive development shaking the foundations of Wisconsin law enforcement.
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Jan 14, 2019

New Wisconsin Attorney General Is X-Factor in Making a Murderer Case

One hopes for justice against dirty cops
such as Manitowoc County Sheriff'
Lt. James Lenk. Lenk infamously
"found the (incriminating) keys to
(murder victim) Halbach's vehicle inside
Avery's bedroom in plain view after
officers from Calumet County,
the state Division of Criminal Investigation
and Two Rivers Police Department
apparently did not see them in previous
searches," (Appleton Post-Crescent).
Now, a "'never-before-seen video'
shows that evidence against
the subject of the hit documentary
Making a Murderer must have been
planted or fabricated, defense
attorney Kathleen Zellner tells
Newsweek." This is a frame-up in
plain sight. The work of the new
Wisconsin attorney general will
determine the lives of the innocent.

Josh Kaul's character, or lack thereof will decide fate of innocents


Madison, Wisconsin — The truth shall make you free is an article of faith for the wrongfully convicted.

In the Wisconsin criminal case featured in Making a Murderer, an obvious case of small-town injustice is kept shielded from a new trial, lest the duplicity, corruption and misconduct defining the Manitowoc County District Attorney and Sheriff's Dept become more of a spectacle.

Still, 2019 will be a year to remember in Wisconsin legal history. Forget procedure and the rule of law. One man will decide whether the innocent live free, or die behind bars.

Not Sheboygan County Circuit Judge Angela Sutkiewicz presiding over Steven Avery's post-conviction litigation. She will likely be bounced off the case. A bureaucrat and politician has to have her priorities.

There is a new attorney general and governor in Wisconsin.

The election of Attorney General Josh Kaul (D) and Gov. Tony Evers (D) are generally presented as good news for post-conviction relief of innocents in Wisconsin.

But Gov. Evers is an empty suit on criminal justice reform and civil liberties, as Evers is on most public policy.

But Attorney General Josh Kaul appears equipped to restore the good name of the Wisconsin Dept of Justice that functioned as an adjunct of the Republican Party for the last 12 years.

Kaul had lifelong exposure to what Wisconsin police and prosecutors are capable of, before serving in the United States Attorney's Office for the District of Maryland.

Kaul did not of course campaign on the rights of the accused, post-conviction relief, challenging police misconduct or the importance of liberty in American society.

The mob that is the electorate does not comprehend such matters deriving from Constitutional niceties, though this condition may be improving.

Josh Kaul, Fond du Lac-Oshkosh boy made good, will likely not become another Roberts Jackson.

But supporters of the wrongfully convicted Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey look to Kaul with modest hopes: To work with Avery's post-conviction attorney, Kathleen Zellner, and good-faith adherence to post-conviction procedure and transparency.

In so many words, simple decency, ethics and the light of day, a professional climate that cannot sustain these wrongful convictions anymore.

Carole Davis, a supporter of the wrongfully convicted, asks of Josh Kaul in part, "are you an honest man."
I don't know the answer to Davis' question. I do know conviction, imprisoning and defending the indefeasible is standard fare of too many jurists who out of convenience and career destroy the lives of those whom they know to be innocent. Penny Brummer is another living example.

Josh Kaul is on political probation with this Wisconsin citizen. I have seen too much to be surprised by anything Kaul may do vis s vis Avery and Dassey.

Surveying social media the last several months, lay supporters of the innocents appear scared, knowing that a dedicated attorney general who would act from malice and other base motives is among the most dangerous people this republic can produce.

 But who would have thought that an obscure Netflix docu-series could so move millions so that a provincial and corrupt county in east-central Wisconsin becomes the focus of demands for simple justice?

Social currents, ripples of creation and good deed, nourished by light can conspire to make one person ensure that Avery and Dassey go free.

Who is Josh Kaul?

Less than a drop in the great, blue motion of the sunlit sea, a drop who may yet sparkle through history and the lives of innocents.
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Dec 29, 2018

Making a Murderer Developments Point to a Decisive 2019

As one of his final acts in office,
Wisconsin Attorney General Brad
Schimel (R) worked to block DNA
examination of critical evidence
in Avery v. Wiscosnin.
Madison, Wisconsin — If post-conviction attorney Kathleen Zellner were to file a new motion that includes video showing Manitowoc County Sheriff Dept yahoos planting evidence, then County Circuit Judge Angela Sutkiewicz would still refuse a new trial for Steven Avery, a framed defendant featured in Making a Murderer.

Attorney Zellner is handling post-conviction litigation to free the wrongfully convicted Steven Avery, a living testament to the kangaroo-court quality of the Wisconsin judiciary that makes Oklahoma look like enlightened champions of liberty and truth, in comparison.

Sutkiewicz, presiding over Avery's post-conviction litigation at the circuit court level, is a striking example of the Wisconsin court system, and more broadly a culture that is corrupted against the accused.
---
Part of the problem here is the lack of a vibrant, critical daily press.

Pick up even an editorially progressive paper such as the Capital Times (Madison), and this daily's news columns read "tough-on crime-conservative" as a characterization of defeated Gov Scott Walker (R). As opposed to what? A 'weak-on-crime liberal?' (Elbow, The Capital Times).

With the dailies pushing Walker's polemics, who needs rightwing propaganda?
---
But Sutkiewicz is a disgrace whose depleted powers of reasoning have lifelong effects on the accused unfortunate enough to appear in her kangaroo court.

Hundreds of defendants request judicial substitutions, knowing Sutkiewicz has already found them guilty.

Sutkiewicz ' court is in the Wisconsin Court of Appeals, Dist Two jurisdiction composed of four judges — Lisa Neubauer, Brian Hagedorn, Mark Gundrum and Paul F. Reilly.

There is cause to wonder if the Wisconsin Court of Appeals, Dist Two is a fair forum for Avery any more than Sutkiewicz ' court.
 ---
Avery's atty, Zellner, made an announcement on Dec. 17 on social media after filing a motion in Wisconsin appellate court to remand the Avery case so advanced DNA testing can be performed by newly retained DNA expert, Dr. Richard Selden.

On Dec. 28, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals, Dist Two, denied the Avery motion.

Notes Wisconsin attorney, Jerome Buting, an observer of the Avery post-conviction litigation, the appellate court made quick work of Zellner's brief:


I have as much faith in the Wisconsin judiciary as I do in Santa Claus.

Hagedorn and Gundrum were first appointed by Gov Walker, hence are hostile to defendants and liberty, and resistant to facts and any litigation highlighting police misconduct.

Hagedorn and Gundrum are not judges, they're dangerous political flacks who routinely betray the Wisconsin people.

Neubauer and Reilly are unreliable, but better than Hagedorn and Gundrum.

Neubauer is running for Wisconsin Supreme Court in 2019, so she is concerned about any judicial action that can paint her in a negative light in a 20-second TV spot. Girl's gotta have her standards.

Here's the latest on Avery's legal fight as the state of Wisconsin works to block out the light on corruption and police misconduct:

A new reformist-minded Wisconsin attorney general, Josh Kaul, takes office in Jan.

Will Kaul continue the cover-up or come clean? Kaul could pursue openness and transparency in Avery's post-conviction litigation.

We will soon know.
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