Criminal Injustice — Lies, Deception Stain Law Enforcement

Penny Brummer was wrongfully convicted
of murder in Wisconsin because she is a lesbian.
Brummer is also a victim of preposterous
false confession in 1994. See Penny Brummer,
Brummer-Mal Contends, Lueders-Isthmus,
Ricks-The Advocate, and the
Huffington Post, Wisconsin State Journal.

Madison, Wisconsin — Police routinely lie when they testify in court; it's called testilying. 

Police cook police reports, and omit exculpatory information.

Police lie in court declarations.

Police lie in interrogations.

Police lie to protect other cops' dishonest and crooked conduct, the infamous blue omertà known as the blue shield or the blue wall of silence.

Police lying is so institutionally pervasive that it's astounding anyone, much less courts and prosecutors, believe anything cops say and write.

Throw in malice, racism and other base motivations that those who become police commonly harbor and it's clear your local municipal police force resembles nothing so much as a pathological occupying gang.

But the cult of the police remains strong. 

Politicians and media forever triumph the noble intentions and alleged virtues of "officers." The Democratic Party is 100-percent behind the police as exemplified by events in Kenosha County concerning the racist cop Rusten Sheskey; and the racist killer, Kyle Rittenhouse, for example.

Police unions supportive of any crooked and dishonest action taken by police have turned into rightwing local political forces. 

In Madison, Wisconsin, the local police union rates the City Council members, based upon how Council members aid police in their dishonest and hostile conduct.

But with the growth of a new generation of human rights attorneys and activists like Black Lives Matter, along with the scientific exposure of the junk pseudoscience police often use to prop up their lies, there are success stories that hold police to conduct themselves as non-criminals.

As false confessions and wrongful convictions are revealed across the nation, some honest prosecutors fight back against crooked prosecutors and police.

While actual prosecutions against crooked prosecutors and police remain rare, at least some innocent people are being exonerated.

The New York Times reports this morning on the "a wide-ranging inquiry by the Bronx district attorney into whether the detectives’ tactics had tainted guilty verdicts in 31 homicide cases that relied on confessions."

Police interrogations are not about searching for the truth.

Police interrogations are about getting the police victim to utter words that can be falsely presented as a confession, as in the Wisconsin case of Brendan Dassey, grotesquely targeted by Mark Wiegert, (current Sheriff of the Calumet County (Wisconsin) Sheriff's Office), Tom Fassbender (Wisconsin DoJ, Division of Criminal Investigation investigator (ret)), sex offender and disgraced ex-prosecutor Ken Kratz and dozens of other police collaborators. Or, to take another Wisconsin case, the wrongfully convicted Penny Brummer, who was arrested and convicted because she is a lesbian, a problem for many bigoted Wisconsin hicks. Police and prosecutors portrayed a nod to a vague question during an interrogation as a confession to a murder.

In the Times piece, Jan Ransom writes:

The [police misconduct] inquiry highlights how a new generation of prosecutors in New York and elsewhere is delving deeply into whether deceptive police interrogation tactics might have warped the criminal justice system through false confessions and wrongful convictions.

The examination comes after the emergence of hundreds of cases across the country in which people were sent to prison only to be exonerated later through the use of DNA or the discovery of new evidence.

In case after case, even after innocence and police misconduct are proven to a moral certainty, prosecutors often oppose freedom for the wrongfully convicted.

Standing in the way of freedom of the wrongfully convicted is sick, to most people.

But this demented pursuit is an enterprise taken up by prosecutors, police and cowardly politicians such as Wisconsin Gov Tony Evers (D).

What's wrong with these people?

Making a Murderer Victim Is Denied Hearing from United States Supreme Court

The United States Supreme Court denies the petition of
Brandan Dassey, an innocent who will remain in prison for
life. Case is highlighted at the bottom of above Court image.

Wisconsin Republicans lead defense for wrongful convictions such as Dassey's

The United States Supreme Court will not hear the case of Brendan Dassay, who was coerced as a 16-year-old into uttering a false confession that is featured in the 2015 Making a Murderer documentaries.

The so-called confession is the sole basis for the conviction of Dassey. The interrogation was conducted by demonstrably corrupt and dishonest investigators who promised Dassey that he could go back to his high-school class if he could just clear up a question. This led to Dassey’s conviction in the 2005 murder of Teresa Halbach.

Writes atty Jerome Buting in May:

So WI Department of "Justice" doesn't care about justice in Brendan's case. They want him to rot in prison because they can't admit they went after innocent 16 yr old boy to convict his uncle.#makingamurderer#cjreform https://t.co/hLxeFy3MfC

— Jerome Buting (@JButing) May 10, 2018

The Court refused to grant cert in Dassey's petition, and its refusal came with a simple list of cases denied, a quiet snuffing out of a man's life, (highlighted at bottom of image, at right).

Wisconsin law enforcement, as with the rest of the nation, attracts Republicans and criminal personality types for whom prosecuting and imprisoning innocent people is seen a means to establish careers and gratifying a need to harm people.

The United States Supreme Court denies the petition of
Brandan Dassey, an innocent who will remain in prison for
life. Case is highlighted at the bottom of above Court image.

The Dassey case is featured along with another wrongful prosecution, Steven Avery, in the Making a Murderer series.

Len Kachinsky, Dassey's attorney, threw Dassey, a cognitively challenged 16-year-old, to two criminal investigators, Mark Wiegert, (sergeant at the Calumet County Sheriff's Office), and Tom Fassbender (Wisconsin Division of Criminal Investigation investigator), who in 2005 weren't looking for the truth but trying to get Dassey to mutter words portrayed as admissions of guilt and supporting a lurid, contrived tale of guilt of Avery in the revenge prosecution (Ferek, Appleton Post-Crescent).

Wiegert, Fassbender and former District Attorney and sex offender Ken Kratz contrived a case against two men whom they knew to be innocent.

Republican-led state police organizations in 2008 awarded Wiegert and Fassbender actual awards for their work in railroading innocent people.

As noted here previously, in America there exists a hostile and deceitful domestic police force, a careerist, conviction-at-any-costs prosecutorial ethos, racism and taboo ethics in the criminal justice system, and a commitment of district attorneys to defend wrongful convictions irrespective of truth or any consideration of justice present conditions perfect for mass incarceration constituting a "leviathan unmatched in human history," (Glenn C. Loury, Boston Review).

We're there, people.

Consider if your daughter, brother, father or mother were wrongfully convicted. Who stands with you then?

Think it could not happen to you? It happened to Penny Brummer in 1994, a young military veteran wrongfully convicted by a Dane County jury because in part she is an out lesbian.

Ask the family of U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska, 1968-2009) (1923-2010), (Cary, Rollcall). The reader will have a full-blooded understanding of a Brady violation.

Ask the mother of Madison, Wisconsin's Penny Brummer: Interrogated, defamed, arrested, convicted and sentenced to what amounts to a life sentence.

Contrary to popular wisdom we live in a land of the Sovereign (the people of the state and not the law) and bad faith and deceit on the part of law enforcement are a huge part of the problem.

I'm thankful for the Richard Posners, the Sidney Powells (there is a force of nature), and the Alex Kozinski for shining lights on not a democracy, but a brutal prison state. And am always mindful of I.F. Stone's admonition: "Every government is run by liars. Nothing they say should be believed." First read this quote in 1985 on a large poster that used to occupy a prominent place of the late Erwin Knoll's (NYT) wall at the Progressive Magazine, a journal carrying out this legacy and reporting the truth to this day.

The only route for Dassey now is a pardon from a new Wisconsin governor if one is elected in November. It's a long shot.

Wrongful Conviction—Missourian David Robinson Walks Free

From left, Jennett McCaster, David Robinson and Pat Jackson
embrace after Robinson's release from the Jefferson City
Correctional facility May 14 in Jefferson City, Missouri.
Photo: Kassi Jackson, Southeast Missourian

"David Robinson walked away a free man Monday night, after nearly 18 years of being incarcerated for a murder he did not commit," writes Bob Miller in the Southeast Missourian.

David Robinson is another victim of police-prosecutor-prison state America. Innocence doesn't matter in a system that is simultaneously mindless and malicious.

Without the work of the Southeast Missourian newspaper bringing this injustice to the attention of the state, Robinson likely would remain in prison for life for a crime he did not commit.

From the AP:

Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley reviewed a judge’s ruling in February that found a police detective was 'lacking in candor or competence, or both.' That detective’s investigation helped send Robinson to prison for life in the fatal shooting of Sheila Box in Sikeston in 2001. The detective has resigned.

Hawley also evaluated the evidence available for a retrial. Since Robinson’s sentencing, another man has confessed to killing Box and two witnesses have recanted.

So, we have a system of dishonest cops, dishonest prosecutors, indecent Dept of Corrections bureaucrats in a country of by-standers. The deliverables are obscene.

The local Missouri paper freed this man against every crooked cop, prosecutor and prison bureaucrat for whom taking a human life is a game.

Would you help imprison a man you knew to be innocent? Most people would not, but the fact is we say nothing about those who perpetrate such crimes on routine basis in Missouri, Wisconsin, every state where cruel injustice and lies are objectives.

On May 5, 2018, the Southeast Missourian writes in its lead editorial after the Missouri Supreme Court "ruled that Robinson's constitutional rights had been violated when police and the state prosecution, led at the time by the Missouri Attorney General's Office, unfairly procured and presented testimony they knew to be false.":

Scott County Prosecutor Paul Boyd on Thursday said effectively that Robinson was not exonerated, because the state could continue to hold him and try him again without violating double jeopardy. While technically correct, the Supreme Court has in effect declared Robinson innocent and will now require the state to prove his guilt. With the court's approval of his habeas claim, Robinson no longer has to prove his innocence. Meanwhile, the evidence of the stunningly unjust way the Sikeston Department of Public Safety and the prosecution treated Robinson is there for everyone to see in court documents and this newspaper's extensive reporting on the case. Perhaps some introspection of how the county dispenses justice is in order, or even some contrition toward Robinson and his family are more prudent now than the parsing of the definition of the word exoneration. Maybe it's time for leadership in the county or the city of Sikeston to acknowledge the injustice that has been done. For now, the city of Sikeston has asked for a federal investigation into its past police practices regarding this case, only stating that it respects the Supreme Court's decision. As if it could do anything but.

Robinson's case is a reminder the role our police and prosecutors play in upholding our constitutional principles, and the importance of an impartial appeals system.

It also highlights the importance of attorneys who care about truth and justice. The Bryan Cave Law firm took on Robinson's case pro bono. Congratulations to them for carrying Robinson's torch.

Meanwhile, the Missouri Attorney General's Office has defended the jury's conviction at every turn, perhaps as expected. An exoneration shouldn't come easily, because a jury's decision is essential to our justice system. But it seems like a system that uses our tax dollars to defend a bad conviction for the sake of doing so is not a healthy system.

Judge Darrell Missey, in his scathing review of the handling of this case, quoted a previous ruling, Strickler v Greene, in his report to the Missouri Supreme Court:

"A prosecutor must seek truth rather than victory, 'because the prosecutor is considered the representative of not an ordinary party to a controversy, but of a sovereignty whose obligation to govern impartially is as compelling as its obligation to govern at all; and whose interest, therefore, in a criminal prosecution is not that it shall win a case, but that justice shall be done.'"

We couldn't agree more. It's time for the State of Missouri to let Robinson go.

Will anything change in Missouri's 'justice' system? No.

How about around the country where wrongful convictions abound from the same brand of sub-human cops, prosecutors and bureaucrats? No.

We live in a country where state-committed injustice is every bit as unchallenged as in Saudi Arabia, Israel, Iran, pick a monarchy or theocracy.

In Wisconsin, we have innocents Penny Brummer, Branden Dassey, Steven Avery for starters who remain in prison.

You can be sure there are many more. Every jurisdiction needs a Conviction Integrity Unit or a human governor to commute and pardon as in the Penny Brummer, Branden Dassey, and Steven Avery cases.

So WI Department of "Justice" doesn't care about justice in Brendan's case. They want him to rot in prison because they can't admit they went after innocent 16 yr old boy to convict his uncle.#makingamurderer#cjreform https://t.co/hLxeFy3MfC

— Jerome Buting (@JButing) May 10, 2018

Person of Interest Hits Wrongfully Convicted for Serving in U.S. Military

Update: Shortly after this post appeared Glenda Johnson took down her comments in a Facebook response (Dec. 15; 7:01 p.m.) to a WKOW-TV (Madison) report. Ms. Johnson's over-heated response indicates a person who really wants this case closed for good, and she remains a suspect whose home the victim was heading before her body was found some two weeks later.
 ---
The day after a press conference this week announcing a $10,000 reward for information leading to the conviction of the person responsible for the 1994 killing of Sarah Gonstead in Madison, a person of interest in a private investigator's probe has come forward and stated she is "100% positive the right person is behind bars."

Glenda Johnson said she bases her certainty in part on the fact that Penny Brummer, the wrongfully convicted, served her country in the United States Armed Forces.

Writes Johnson in a Facebook response (Dec. 15; 7:01 p.m.) to a WKOW-TV (Madison) report by WKOW journalist, Matt Cash: "She [Penny] had her share of issues when she lived in California. She was in the military... A MP. Plus.... I am 100% positive the right person is behind bars ... ."

Penny Brummer did enlist in the Air Force right out of high school in 1987, and after basic training was transferred to Castle Air Force Base in California assigned to base security. She was honorably discharged in 1993, (Berry, p.14).

The full Facebook post by Ms. Johnson reads: "Well lets just say this... The facts on the [WKOW] page/link are wrong. They never made it back to the east side of Madison... Timeline doesn't add up. Last place they were seen together was 1.5 miles from where her body was found... Penny was a very controlling person.. She had her share of issues when she lived in California. She was in the military... A MP. Plus.... I am 100% positive the right person is behind bars. How many times do kids... Even adults lie to their parents. It's a ploy for money because the police have closed this case.... And Penny's mom says ... Penny wouldn't do it."

A reply to Johnson by a co-author of a detailed book on the homicide, by Sheila Berry, reads in full: "Glenda Johnson We have the police reports and the transcripts of everything -- initial appearance, preliminary, motions, trial and sentencing. It is clear from police reports that YOU raised the hue and cry that Sarah never made it to your house, before anyone knew she was missing. Did the police get that wrong? How about that 3 hour gap after you left work -- so upset -- but didn't go home? That's the same time frame when an independent witness saw someone dumping a bright pink "bundle" that turned out to be Sarah's body. As Shakspeare said, methinks the lady doth protest too much."

Why Glenda Johnson—who lived in the home to which Ms. Gonstead was last reported to have been intent on visiting—is so vested to see Penny Brummer behind bars and affirm the integrity of a clearly faulty police investigation is interesting, certainly pertinent to the 1994 criminal investigation.

The police quickly developed their theory and declined investigating leads disconfirming or not supporting their theory, (tunnel vision in the vernacular of criminal justice), and barely questioned Ms. Johnson. The Dane County District Attorney's office went along for the ride.

Sarah Gonstead was last seen on March 24, 1994. Her body was recovered on April 9, 1994 in Pine Bluff, an unincorporated community west of Madison. "In less than a week authorities had zeroed in on 24-year-old Penny Brummer. The last person to admit to seeing Gonstead alive after their night of binge drinking [together]," (Pabich, WMTV (Madison).

Notes author and attorney Sheila Berry on her website:

Witness 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, 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.

The blood alcohol level in Sarah's liver suggests a time of death several hours after Penny was back at her Spring Green home, watching TV. 

The dearth of evidence and many facts do not fit, and do not support a conviction, and Penny Brummer remains in prison serving a life sentence.

Wisconsin Wrongful Conviction and a $10,000 Reward for At-large Killer

Advocates for Penny Brummer - Wrongfully Convicted in 1994

"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 [Brummer's] case features many of these same features."
—John Pray, Co-founder of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Innocence Project

Advocates of Penny Brummer are working to correct a 21-year-old injustice in the wrongful conviction of Penny Brummer.

Penny Brummer was convicted of killing Sarah Gonstead in 1994 despite no weapon, no forensic evidence, no motive, and literally no evidence of any kind tying Brummer to the undetermined crime scene.

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 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.

A $10,000 reward has been offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the killer of Sarah Gonstead murdered in 1994 for which Brummer was convicted and given a life sentence for first-degree intentional homicide.

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 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.

[Note: Since covering the Brummer case, several jurists, advocates and other well-informed sources have told me on background coverage of this case here has on some occasions borders on ad hominem regarding the presiding judge of Brummer v. Wisconsin, Patrick Fiedler. They point to Fiedler's well-regarded status in the Wisconsin legal community, his CV (ballotpedia), attest to Fiedler as an honorable jurist and brilliant intellect, his swift exoneration of Forest Shomberg in the 2011 wrongful conviction case, and currently his work as an effective defense attorney working to defend the rights of the citizenry of Wisconsin. These assessments are often informed by those who have worked directly and closely with Fielder. This site is indexed in Lexis-Nexis and Bloomberg's Westlaw as a legal research document, and thorough commentary and analysis ought note the above facts.]

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.

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.

"Hope springs eternal in the human breast," said Alexander Pope in his An Essay on Man (1734).

For Penny Brummer, her family, her extended family of supporters and in the name of justice for Sarah Gonstead, one hopes truth is soon realized.

Wrongful Conviction—$10,000 Reward Offered in Sarah Gonstead Killing; Innocent Penny Brummer Still in Prison

Wrongful Conviction for Reasons of Careerism and Bigotry Against Lesbians 
"They didn't look at (Penny), they just looked at it as let's get another gay person off the street," said Nancy Brummer, Penny's mother (Pabich, WMTV-TV) -

Updated - As Penny Brummer remains in prison, convicted for the 1994 killing of Sarah Gonstead, a $10,000 reward is now being offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person(s) responsible for 1994 death of Gonstead and Kelly Nolan.

Tipsters may remain anonymous. Email sheila0326@gmail.com, or call toll-free at 800 407-1178.

Penny Brummer's 1994 conviction remains an outrage perpetrated by the Madison Police Dept, the Dane County Sheriff's Dept., and the Dane County District Attorney's office still protecting the wrongful conviction to this day.

Penny Brummer

Here in Dane County, an innocent woman, Penny Brummer, remains behind bars (in Fond du Lac county), a 1994 prosecution presided over by District Attorney Brian Blanchard's office (2001-2010), and an injustice District Attorney Ismael Ozanne (2010-present) has refused to revisit, though the case lacks evidence of any kind—forensic evidence, crime scene eyewitness accounts, murder weapons, nothing but bigotry and what attorneys call "confirmation bias."

So what happened in 1994? The D.A.'s office says: There's no case?

Brummer was a lesbian and veteran so she likely murdered someone, and police had a theory, who needs evidence?

The judge was former Dane County (Wisconsin) Judge Patrick Fiedler, now a partner with Hurley, Burish & Stanton, S.C., after several decades of prosecutorial work in service to the Republican Party and his career. Fiedler, a rightwinger and typical bigot, agreed with the D.A's office.

A decent judge would have dismissed the case.

It is incomprehensible to me why current DA Ismael Ozanne lets this injustice stand.

"Police clearly had 'tunnel vision' in building a case against Penny, another common feature in wrongful convictions. Witness 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, 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."
- From Who Killed Sarah

To support this innocent woman, see Penny Brummer.

On Prosecutors Protecting Wrongful Convictions

"I’ve made the argument before that convicting an innocent person of murder ought to be treated like a doctor who amputates the wrong limb. If it wasn’t intentional, perhaps it shouldn’t be a criminal offense. But it should end that person’s career. Yet to actively work to preserve bad convictions, and to work to keep information about those cases from becoming public, is another matter entirely," writes Radley Balko today in the Washington Post.

With a hat tip to Mark Godsey at the Wrongful Convictions blog, I ask Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne to read a book: Who Killed Sarah? A True Story of Injustice.

I would be happy to email Mr. Ozanne a copy, if you are reading this. Your office is protecting a wrongful prosecution, and I suspect a man of your intellect realizes this fact.

Your office can afford to be just.

Police-Prosecutor State Must End

Updated - "The sentencing reform bill introduced in the Senate on Thursday falls far short of what is needed, but it is a crucial first step on the long path toward unwinding the federal government’s decades-long reliance on prisons as the answer to every ill," notes today's New York Times.

It's not just prison sentences for the guilty, it's the insane police-prosecutor state composed of individuals who have no remorse and blind ambition in arresting, prosecuting and imprisoning innocent Americans.

Every day in Dane County former District Attorney Brian Blanchard (2001-2010) (now a state appellate judge) and former Dane County (Wisconsin) Judge Patrick Fiedler, (now a partner with Hurley, Burish & Stanton, S.C.), draw a level breath one wonders how much the innocent Penny Brummer they convicted weighs on their minds.

Brummer is a lesbian, served in the armed forces, and hence must be guilty of murder. That's the size of their case in 1994. Imbecilic police work, bigotry and careerism.

Can this happen in America? This is America, "a leviathan unmatched in human history," (Loury, Boston Review).

And Blanchard and Fiedler are sleeping fine.

To understand the character of Blanchard and Fiedler, consider this is the same prosecutor-judge combo—so desperate for career advancement—they prosecuted the late, eminent UW-Madison historian Stanley Kutler, (1934-2015). Kutler's charged crime? Yelling at his health insurance company, and opining the bureaucrats' company should be blown up.

This brought a Class B misdemeanor charge filed by Blanchard in 2005, ridiculed across academic circles and among jurists, and ultimately settled with a $149.00 fine.

Fiedler didn't toss the case, Blanchard didn't drop the case.

Blanchard and Fiedler got their headlines.

Kutler emailed and called me a couple of years later after reading some pieces about then U.S. Atty Steven Biskupic's prosecutions of a veteran on a trumped-up "wire fraud" charges, numerous 'voter fraud' charges and the infamous Georgia Thompson prosecution.

Kutler suggested in good humor that Blanchard should consider taking 30 days and reading up on Robert Jackson and his disquisitions on prosecutorial discretion.

The current Dane County District Attorney should do the same, and consider the proposition that apropos to Penny Brummer, and every citizen, the law can afford to be just. And there is no imperative to protect a wrongful prosecution, emphatically when the innocent Ms. Brummer has been sitting in prison for 19 years.

If you have any information that could lead to the arrest and conviction of the person/persons responsible for the death of Sarah Gonstead or the death of Kelly Nolan, please contact: sheila0326@gmail.com. 

Center for Prosecutor Integrity—Needed Here

An innocent woman, Penny Brummer, remains behind bars (in Fond du Lac county), a 1994 prosecution presided over by District Attorney Brian Blanchard's office (2001-2010) for reasons of careerism and bigotry against Lesbians

As the police continue to target black men and women in Dane County, the need for civil liberties checks on the police and the prosecutor is apparent.

One such check is the Center for Prosecutor Integrity (CPI).

When an innocent loses decades of his life, then is exonerated in Wisconsin, what happens? Does the press pound for an explanation? Do police self-evaluate? District Attorney's office?

Nothing happens, careerism and passive compliance remain the order of the day.

At CPR, the mission remains in part:

The Center for Prosecutor Integrity is the nation’s only organization with a sole focus on enhancing prosecutorial ethics.

Three major areas:Addressing Over-Criminalization, Ending Wrongful Convictions and Restoring Equal Treatment Under Law. ...

Our Prosecutor Integrity Registry help tell the story and address the very real problems in our Justice System today.

These are just some of the systemic problems.

Self-conscious malicious prosecutions and prosecutorial misconduct are common, common is Wisconsin.

Penny Brummer

Here in Dane County, for example, an innocent woman, Penny Brummer, remains behind bars (in Fond du Lac county), a 1994 prosecution presided over by District Attorney Brian Blanchard's office (2001-2010), and an injustice District Attorney Ismael R. Ozanne (2010-present) has refused to revisit, though the case lacks evidence of any kind—forensic evidence, eyewitness,  murder weapon, nothing but bigotry and what attorneys call "confirmation bias"—the rest of all call it bullshit.

So what happened in 1994? The D.A.'s office says: There's no case?

Of course not, Brummer was a lesbian so she likely murdered someone, so who needs evidence?

The judge was former Dane County (Wisconsin) Judge Patrick Fiedler, now a partner with Hurley, Burish & Stanton, S.C, after several decades of prosecutorial work in service to the Republican Party and his career. Fiedler, a rightwinger and typical bigot, agreed with the D.A's office.

A decent judge would have dismissed the case.

For the life of me it is incomprehensible to me why Ismael Ozanne lets this injustice stand.

"Police clearly had 'tunnel vision' in building a case against Penny, another common feature in wrongful convictions. Witness 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, 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."
- From Who Killed Sarah-

To support this innocent woman, Penny Brummer.

"They didn't look at (Penny), they just looked at it as let's get another gay person off the street," said Nancy Brummer, Penny's mother (Pabich, WMTV-TV).

What is Ozanne's excuse?

Ozanne has made public statements that his office will cooperate with the Innocence Project.

This is an unusual commitment by district attorneys in wrongful conviction cases.

In light of the growing prison-industrial complex of American society and case after case of innocents behind bars, I asked Ozanne point blank when he was running for Attorney General, "how much does the imprisonment of an innocent weigh on you?"

Ozanne's response is a source of hope for Penny Brummer: "No prosecutor should want to have innocent people who have been wrongfully convicted stay in prison. If evidence is brought to the attention of the authorities demonstrating that a mistake has been made, the interests of justice demand that the evidence is carefully reviewed and the individual should be released if exonerated. As Dane County District Attorney, I have worked with lawyers from the Innocence Project, and will do so in the future. While these decisions are largely at the discretion of the DAs around the state, I would work with them as attorney general, providing resources and advice in these situations. The ultimate goal of the system is not simply to secure convictions, it is to do justice."

These words do not square with Ozanne's inaciton.

As with all the other innocents whose lives were effectively murdered, Ms. Brummer's case calls for enactment of a Conviction Integrity Unit in Dane, Iron and Milwaukee counties, independent of the District Attorney's offices, for starters. (Conviction Integrity Unit, Wrongful Convictions)
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[A version of this piece was published in 2014.]

Hope for the Innocent

Who killed Sarah?

Update: "Police clearly had 'tunnel vision' in building a case against Penny, another common feature in wrongful convictions. Witness 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, 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."
- From Who Killed Sarah - To support this innocent woman.
---
An innocent women, Penny Brummer, sits in the Taycheedah Correctional Institution located just outside Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, convicted of first degree murder in 1994.

One problem among many with the case is that there is no physical evidence connecting Brummer to the murder of Sarah Gonstead, no murder weapon, and no witnesses. And no motive.

The case is an array of contrived theories, conjecture, and unadulterated bigotry predicated upon the fact that Brummer is a lesbian, hence the murderer of Gonstead (Berry and Berry, Who Killed Sarah?).

Penny Brummer is serving a life sentence for first-degree murder after being convicted on circumstantial evidence, a sentence handed down with apparent joy by former Dane County (Wisconsin) Judge Patrick Fiedler, now a partner with Hurley, Burish & Stanton S.C., after several decades of prosecutorial work in service to the Republican Party and his career.

Fiedler should never have allowed the trial to continue with the paucity of evidence presented.

But Fiedler is not known as a human rights activist, just a GOP hack who is making a lot of money over the lives of victims of the sick judiciary.

"They didn't look at (Penny), they just looked at it as let's get another gay person off the street," said Nancy Brummer, Penny's mother (Pabich, WMTV).

A few years back, Madison writer Bill Lueders visited Brummer at Taycheedah.

"Something's got to happen. God's not going to let me sit here for something I didn't do. I feel he's guiding somebody out there to help me," Lueders wrote, quoting Penny Brummer.

Not God, certainly not former Dane County Sheriff Rick Raemisch (1990-1997), now passing himself off as a prison reformer in Colorado (Goode, NYT).

Raemisch used the occasion of WMTV's piece (Pabich) on the Wisconsin Innocence Project's effort (following work by Wisconsin's Innocence Consultants) to exonerate Brummer to offer this lame, conscience-free statement: "We can place the suspect and the victim in the west end of Dane County at the time the suspect says the victim was being dropped off." (WMTV)

That's compelling. Wonder how this logical wizard, Raemisch, sleeps at night.

DNA Testing Ongoing

Fortunately, the Innocence Project is expecting more results of ongoing DNA analysis soon.

Reports WMTV's Pabich: "The DNA results are expected in the next few months. We (spoke) with the foreman of the jury that convicted Penny. He says he didn't want to talk about the situation 20 years ago and doesn't want to now. I did ask him if he still stands by the decision they made 20 years ago. He said that's a really difficult question."

Dane County DA's Office and Cause for Hope

The current Dane County District Attorney is Ismael Ozanne, and the office is now (to my mind) guided by facts and justice.

Ozanne has made public statements that his office will cooperate with the Innocence Project.

This is an unusual commitment by district attorneys in wrongful conviction cases.

In light of the growing prison-industrial complex of American society and case after case of innocents behind bars, I asked Ozanne point blank when he was running for Attorney General, "how much does the imprisonment of an innocent weigh on you?"

Ozanne's response is a source of hope for Penny Brummer: "No prosecutor should want to have innocent people who have been wrongfully convicted stay in prison. If evidence is brought to the attention of the authorities demonstrating that a mistake has been made, the interests of justice demand that the evidence is carefully reviewed and the individual should be released if exonerated. As Dane County District Attorney, I have worked with lawyers from the Innocence Project, and will do so in the future. While these decisions are largely at the discretion of the DAs around the state, I would work with them as attorney general, providing resources and advice in these situations. The ultimate goal of the system is not simply to secure convictions, it is to do justice."

The most recent piece by WMTV did not interview DA Ozanne but if he lives up to the above statement, he would be working with the Innocence Project to review the case against Brummer, and with new DNA evidence free her.

Any decent human being ought to hope for justice; Penny Brummer can only pray and wait.

U.S. Steps up Pardons, Commutations; Scott Walker Refuses

"President Obama finally used his power to pardon and commute sentences to order the release of 8 low-level drug offenders serving outrageously long sentences, but there are tens of thousands more in the same situation. The DOJ says it’s looking for others with similar sentences to commute," reads an item in FreeThought.

Meanwhile, Scott Walker maintains his refusal to consider pardoning the wrongfully convicted, including Marine combat veteran, Eric Pizer, innocent but convicted Green Bay ex-cop, John Maloney and Penny Brummer of Madison.

So why would a governor refuse to pardon the wrongfully convicted?

Walker says it's because there are probably 1,000s of wrongfully convicted in Wisconsin, hence Walker cannot use his pardon power.

"If you pick one there's thousands of other examples out there of people who may not have the media or other outlets behind them, who would be in an equal position who probably have a compelling case to be made that we don't yet know about," said Walker in an interview with WKOW TV(Madison, Wisconsin), specifically referring to his refusal to consider pardoning or commuting the Pizer case.  

Moronic human garbage.

If Mary Burke had any decency she would issue a press release indicating her intention to pardon Pizer and so many others on Day One of assuming office. 

Running for political office seeking a mandate to correct injustice, now there's a thought.

Wrongfully Convicted: Scott Walker: No Pardons for 1,000s with "Compelling Case" of Innocence

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker explains why he has granted no
pardons to incarcerated citizens with compelling cases.
"If you pick one there's thousands of other examples out there of
people who may not have the media or other
outlets behind them, who would be in an equal position who
probably have a compelling case to be made that we don't
know about," said Walker in an interview with WKOW TV (Madison).

Update II: Eric Pizer—the Wisconsin man trying to become a cop and blocked by Scott Walker—is Marine Corps Iraq combat veteran.

Update: From WKOW TV (Madison) and Democurmudgeon: Scott Walker's offers an incoherent and truly sociopathic justification behind his policy of not granting pardons:

"If you pick one there's thousands of other examples out there of people who may not have the media or other outlets behind them, who would be in an equal position who probably have a compelling case to be made that we don't yet know about," said Walker in an interview with WKOW.

Walker states there are a lot of people with compelling cases for pardons, so we should pardon none of them. This is a not a logically compelling argument.

Wrongfully convicted? What matters is whether the media or other outlets are behind them, suggests Walker, a bizarre position.

What about innocent Green Bay ex-cop, John Maloney; the innocent Penny Brummer of Madison who police went after because she was an out lesbian, and the innocent Don Miller of Hurley just released on parole? 

And there are surely many more innocents incarcerated.

The great English jurist, William Blackstone, wrote that "the law holds that it is better that ten guilty persons escape, than that one innocent suffer" in his Commentaries on the Laws of England (1769), the source of Common Law in the United States courts, and often cited in opinions in the U.S. Supreme Court of the United States.

Walker went public with his disinclination to pardon in the Spring 2012, although he has broad power vested in Article V, section 6 of the Wisconsin Constitution, after being challenged not to pardon his aides and appointees convicted in WalkerGate. 

In Feb, 12, 2012, this mal contends site challenged Walker not to pardon his personally appointed, long time aide, Tim Russell.

"Gov. Scott Walker says he won't pardon anyone charged in the ongoing John Doe investigation of former aides who worked for him as Milwaukee County executive," Walker later said in a Wisconsin Public Radio report in May 30, 2012.

Jason Stein of the Journal Sentinel reported Barrett's call a week before the Recall Election in June 2012:

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett stepped up his criticism of Gov. Scott Walker on Tuesday by questioning whether [Walker] would pardon any of his aides charged in a John Doe investigation.

“I want to be certain that we’re not going to have this election and he’s going to turn around and pardon all these aides of his who have been charged,” he said after a campaign stop at a Baraboo coffee shop. “I just want him to say that he’s never going to pardon any of these people. These are close associates of his.” (MJS. May 29, 2012)

Walker spokesman Cullen Werwie actually thinks the power of clemency and commutation belongs to the Judiciary branch. Gov. Walker "believes these decisions are best left up to the courts," Blogging Blue writes, notwithstanding Article V, section 6 of the Wisconsin Constitution which reads:

SECTION 6. [Pardoning power.] The governor shall have power to grant reprieves, commutations and pardons, after conviction, for all offenses, except treason and cases of impeachment, upon such conditions and with such restrictions and limitations as he may think proper, subject to such regulations as may be provided by law relative to the manner of applying for pardons. Upon conviction for treason he shall have the power to suspend the execution of the sentence until the case shall be reported to the legislalure at its next meeting, when the legislature shall either pardon, or commute the sentence, direct the execution of the sentence, or grant a further reprieve. He shall annually communicate to the legislature each case of reprieve, commutation or pardon granted, stating the name of the convict, the crime of which he was convicted, the sentence and its date, and the date of the commutation, pardon or reprieve, with his reasons for granting the same.

When Walker implies 1,000s of people do not rightfully belong in prison, and Walker justifies this state of affairs by saying not all advocacy groups and media support are, equal this seems capricious and bloodless.

And Walker's chief spokesperson doesn't even know to what branch of government the power of commutations and pardons belongs.

Does Scott Walker hear himself when he suggests there are 1,000s of innocents in Wisconsin prisons and jails, but as they all do not have the same advocates and media attention so they should all stay in prison?

From Tony Galli at WKOW:

Wisconsin Senate Passes Bill Helping Wrongfully Convicted

Penny Brummer—Another
Innocent Incarcerated in Wisconsin

In a unanimous voice vote, the Wisconsin State Senate passed legislation increasing compensation for the wrongfully convicted—a swelling population in our country that has become putative towards the liberty of its citizens.

The United States leads the world in incarcerating its own citizens, as Saudi Arabia, Iran and Russia look to America as the world's "leviathan unmatched in human history," as Glenn C. Loury describes the prison-industrial complex.

Incarcerating Americans, innocent or guilty, is good business for the private prison system and great politics for the truly bipartisan enterprise of destroying the lives of our fellow citizens as we sit as bystanders.

Wisconsin is taking one step against this obscene enterprise attacking the foundation of our society, people.

Who knows about Penny Brummer of Madison, Wisconsin and Don Miller of Hurley, Wisconsin—innocent and sitting in prison today?

I hadn't heard of them, and would not have except for the determined efforts of a group of advocates.

How about Robert Lee Stinson of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for whom the wrongfully convicted bill is named? Never heard of Mr. Stinson until the introduction of this bill to the Wisconsin legislature.

The State Senate "approved the amendment on a voice vote and the bill 33-0 Tuesday," reads an AP report. Never thought I see that: 33-0.

The bill is now headed to the Wisconsin State Assembly where it enjoys bipartisan support, authored by Rep. Garey Bies, (R-Sister Bay), chair of the Assembly Committee on Corrections, and Rep. Gary Hebl, (D-Sun Prairie).

There is at least one District Attorney, Martin Lipske of Iron County Wisconsin, who has engaged in a malicious prosecution, working to imprison a man whom he knew to be innocent (to borrow from the film, Judgement at Nuremberg (Kramer. 1961)).

Perhaps worse is the systemic imprisonment of those fellow human beings of whom any decent person would say: She doesn't belong behind bars.