Wisconsin Gov. Evers' Political Grift on Commutations Aped by Media

Commentary

"I hate injustice. I guess that's about the only thing I really do hate."
Ben Shahn, anti-fascist artist, (1898–1969). 

Madison, Wisconsin — It's Easter 2026 and Gov. Tony Evers (D-Wisconsin) days earlier emitted typically deceitful posturing on executive clemency under the Wisconsin Constitution—pardons, (grants of forgiveness restoring civil rights); sentence commutations (roughly, shortening a sentence), and reprieves.

Last week, Evers penned two new April 2026 executive orders pertaining to Wisconsin commutations: Gov. Evers Executive Order #287: Relating to the Creation of the Governor's Commutation Advisory Board; April 3, 2026;   Gov. Evers Executive Order #288: Relating to the Creation of a Juvenile Life Sentence Commutation Process — April 3, 2026, some nine months after Evers' second term expires.

Evers' executive orders are misleading, as what passes for Wisconsin press misreports the legal power of executive orders and advisory boards (no legal power) vis a vis executive clemency in Wisconsin. 

This matters because wrongfully convicted in Wisconsin's corrupt criminal justice system—from Steven Avery, Penny Brummer to Brendan Dassey—are studiously avoided and deflected away by Tony Evers who infamously (at least among some circles) denied Dassey's 2019 pardon petition, falsely claiming an advisory board prohibited Evers from granting a pardon or commutation.

Commutations are only now available and restored after 25 years of not being available, falsely reports Evers' personal scribe, Frank Zefall in the Wisconsin Examiner, See, "Gov. Evers announces commutations will be available in Wisconsin."

My god, what is wrong with Zefall? Do he not research his topic?

Commutations have never in Wisconsin history been unavailable, there is no need to restore commutations as executive clemency which includes commutations remains an unchanged and exclusive Constitutional power of the Wisconsin governor. 

See, for example, Donald Leo Bach's work in the Wisconsin Lawyer, or better yet, read Article V, Section 6 of the Wisconsin Constitution.

Facts and Analysis on Commutation

Evers' predecessor, Gov. Scott Walker, refused to use his power of executive clemency and granted zero criminal sentence commutations, zero pardons and reprieves, in accordance with Walker's political commitments and wishes.

Gov. Tony Evers uses his power of executive clemency, but has granted zero sentence commutations, in accordance with Evers' political commitments protecting a corrupt criminal justice system, and blocking out even comment on wrongful convictions, much less commutations and pardons. 

Wisconsin Democrats do love their corrupt criminal justice system.

Advisory boards do not change Wisconsin governors' Constitutional power, but as in Evers' administration, advisory boards can serve as shields to protect political acts of cowardice and dishonesty on the part of the governor.

Evers has pardoned only those who have served full sentences-plus five years.

On commutations, Evers is aligned with Scott Walker, as both Walker and Evers granted zero commutations. 

Zero commutations differentiates Evers and Walker from Govs. Dreyfus, Earl and Thompson who together commuted 46 sentences between 1979-2001. 

I will never fathom the mania behind Wisconsin Democrats like Evers to posture and mislead.

Why did Evers set up his pardon regime in which applicants must wait years after serving a sentence, while simultaneously also refusing commutations?

Evers is offering political protection to the criminal justice system and law enforcement as he accepts as fact the system's findings, convictions and criminal sentencing. Evers effectively covers up for criminal justice system misconduct.

This, even as he attempts to accrue the political benefits of compassion that attend to an altogether weak and passive pardon and commutation regime that again has no force in law.

Not once has Evers called into question dishonest cops, crooked prosecutors, or intellectually dishonest judges.

Evers could stand up against small-town injustice, police corruption and the likes of Ken Kratz, the disgraced and manifestly unreliable prosecutor of wrongfully convicted Brendan Dassey and Steven Avery, of Making a Murderer, (Netflix, Inc), as well as myriad other cases of injustice.

Tony Evers owes no more fealty to the Wisconsin Judiciary and the criminal justice system than he does to the findings and integrity of the state legislature. 

Again, commutation and pardon advisory boards and guidelines have no more force in law than if Evers consulted Tarot cards or astrology. It's just cover. 

And it takes an obvious misstatement of fact about the governors' unchallenged executive clemency power to cover up Evers' cowardice.

Evers is offering political protection to the criminal justice system as he implicitly accepts as fact the system's findings, convictions and criminal sentencing choosing finality over truth. 

As a member of Brendan Dassey's post-conviction defense team, former U.S. Solicitor General, Seth Waxman, said in Oct 2019 in Madison, "I have never had a case that has troubled me more than this case, that has kept me awake at night, that makes me anxious and sad. And that's because I know that Brendan Dassey is innocent."

Tony Evers does not care, and he lies and misleads to hide this fact.

Democrats, Zionism Target Liberty in Wisconsin

Over 850 people hit the streets in Ashland, Wisconsin
No Kings march. (Image from Ros Nelson, Facebook). 

Democrats Give Up Ship to Zionists

Commentary

Madison, Wisconsin — Wisconsin remains peace-and-liberty-minded. Peace movement flourishes here as exemplified in No Kings protests across the state last Saturday, seeing Jewish Voice for Peace and Vets for Peace folk, for example, as well as 1,000s of anti-ICE folks.

But elected Wisconsin Democrats in the state Capitol and Congress don't get the message of the people. 

In fact, Wisconsin Democrat politicians reject peace-and-liberty commitments of the people whom they represent, and Zionist work abounds among elected officials.

Wisconsin Democrat Pols Equal Zionists

The day before the No Kings demonstrations, Gov Tony Evers (D) signed into law Zionist-pushed legislation, (Assembly Bill 446; 2025 Wisconsin Act 143). 

The Zionist Act adapts absurd political definitions of anti-Semitism to further anti-liberty, thought-control purposes of aiding criminal sanction, codifying Zionist tenets, right as Zionist movement commits Genocide and annexes land, ala Nazi Germany, South Africa, and other totalitarian movements, (Wisconsin Examiner; The Capital Times; The Progressive Magazine).

The anti-Semitism definitions were adopted by the ironically self-defined International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, a project advocating punitive criminal sanction worldwide for voicing thought at variance with Apartheid-Zionist thought. 

For example, the anti-Semitism definition would bring criminal sanction for, "drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis," (International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance), if a legal claim is made of discrimination, or prejudicial action.

Some 37 states adopt some manner of Zionist thought control, as countries across the Western world even criminalize slogans calling for peace and human rights.

In practice, the new Zionist codification of alleged hate speech would empower Wisconsin municipalities' police, for example, to walk up to a citizen holding a sign condemning Israeli Apartheid, or torture, or rape, or Genocide, write a citation for disorderly conduct or some other bullshit municipal ticket, then under color of, and with aid of anti-Semitism statute, pursue hate-crime enhancer charges.

Notes Howard Schweber, UW-Madison First Amendment scholar, "But they’re [Wisconsin speech-code advocates] saying in all the contexts in which we already have laws that … target racist or prejudicial actions, where the claim is that the action is anti-Semitic, this is the definition we’ll use to test that claim," (Jacobs, The Capital Times).

And the hell with the First Amendment. Wisconsin already has a hate crime statute on the books.

In Wisconsin, municipal citations are first litigated in municipal courts, kangaroo courts in which Due Process rights are virtually non-existent. [See an illustration of mass politically motivated police actions and adjudication in action when 1,000s of citations from 2011-12 at the Wisconsin Capitol were written for singing or walking by and listening during anti-Gov. Scott Walker thought actions. All citations, after years of litigation, were thrown out and found violative of the First Amendment.]

All criminal prosecutions of lawful speech require is a dishonest cop and a crooked district attorney. As a lifelong Wisconsinite, I can assure such people exist.

Zionist work is about crushing dissent and liberty, just as Gov Scott Walker did.

UW-Madison Takes Aim at Anti-Genocide Student Government

The University of Wisconsin at Madison last week officially condemned a student government resolution advocating a Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions action against the Apartheid entity of Israel.

Reports the Badger Herald daily student newspaper: 

"The University of Wisconsin said Wednesday that it is disappointed with the passage of an Associated Students of Madison (ASM) resolution, according to a UW press release. The resolution issued a number of flawed, unrelated and illegal demands, according to the press release."

The ASM resolution, introduced by Students for Justice in Palestine, calls for the Universities of Wisconsin to divest from BlackRock index funds, which contain holdings in weapons manufacturers that supply weapons and military technology to the Rapid Support Forces in Sudan and the Israeli Defense Force, according to the resolution."

Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D)

Tammy Baldwin offers her Zionist perspective on a recent PBS Wisconsin interview, by omitting mention of Israel altogether in her discussion of the Israeli-U.S. war against Iran.

Sen Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisconsin) leads 
the Wisconsin congressional delegation in 
accepting Israel Lobby funds. Baldwin is a
reliable vote for the Israeli Lobby, and is
known as calculating and mealy-mouthed.

This apes a recent trend in which writers absurdly minimize or obscure Israeli involvement in the Israeli-U.S. war against Iran, (Foreign Policy; Jewish Currents; CounterPunch; ScheerReport). 

Iran War? Who? Israel?

From social media, to columns in weekly newspapers such as the Mount Horeb Mail, Baldwin takes the Zionist line on anti-Semitism and Israeli wars. [Full disclosure. I wrote in a reply to Baldwin's PBS Wisconsin interview: "Typical Baldwin. Not one word about Israel (Baldwin took $700,000 from Israel Lobby), national security state, a moral assessment. Baldwin was vacuous and clueless. How can you address the Israeli-U.S. War against Iran, and not mention Israel?"]

Meanwhile, fellow Zionists in Congress such as Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla) work with the police to target anti-Zionist thought, lest the American people put a stop to American support for the Zionist entity, Israel. 

In Miami Beach, police visit the homes of those citizens who dare voice disapproval of Israel.

The aim is intimidation. Now, one woman is suing. 

Wasserman Schultz and similarly-minded Zionists will not stop.

As antisemitism rises, I helped coordinate local law enforcement and Jewish leaders to keep our communities safe.

We need to come together and fight hate in all forms. pic.twitter.com/Yzn7GrobI2

— Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (@RepDWStweets) March 29, 2026

---
Wisconsin people remain tied to best traditions, but we face a time when virtually all state and federal elected representatives are First Amendment illiterates and pro-Zionist cowards, preferring passive compliance over active thought. 

The country witnesses Zionist attempts to criminalize lawful public dissent, disregarding liberty and open discussion of governments—human work that remains not just personal liberty but an essential part of our free society, and simple decency.

But not if  Zionists and allies get their way. 

Israel doesn’t just bomb small Palestinian children in their homes or snipe them in their skulls

It tortures them until their parents confess

The apartheid regime continues to do the unspeakable and our rulers force us to pay for it https://t.co/Ucc0aPGO8z

— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) March 29, 2026

#
MICHAEL LEON is a writer living in Madison, Wisconsin. His writing has appeared nationally in The Progressive, In These Times, and CounterPunch.

Disgraced Wisconsin District Attorney Wants NYT v. Sullivan 'Overturned' Following Legal Defeat for Cop

Goya Here Comes the Bogeyman,
plate three from Los Caprichos.
Bogeyman do not like criticism
from citizens.

Crooked Cops Fly Together

Commentary

Madison, Wisconsin — Disgraced Calumet County District Attorney Ken Kratz resigned in 2010 following allegations Kratz sexually harassed several women, including a sexual assault claim alleging Kratz "had forcible sex with an emotionally vulnerable woman after previously prosecuting the woman," (Wisconsin Office of Lawyer Regulation v. Kratz (In re Disciplinary Proceedings Against Kratz)).

Kratz is also notorious for his crooked prosecutions of less than two years earlier from Kratz' harassment and assault, a time during which Kratz corruptly prosecuted two innocents featured in the Emmy-winning Making a Murderer (Netflix) docuseries. Kratz termed himself a "dick" for the assaults, not for the crooked prosecutions.

The "dick" blamed his narcissistic personality disorder and multiple drug addictions, after being driven from the district attorney's office after the allegations of sexual harassment and sexual assault came to light, after which he was driven from the Wisconsin legal profession altogether in 2019.

Steven Avery and his nephew, Brendan Dassey, were convicted of first-degree homicide by Kratz for the 2005 murder of a young photographer, Teresa Halbach. Both men are serving life sentences in spectacular miscarriages of justice, supported by Wisconsin Democrats, the better to look tough on crime.

Now, a retired cop, Andrew Colborn, whom Wisconsin citizens say helped frame Steven Avery just lost a civil suit for defamation against Netflix. The case is Andrew L  Colborn v. Netflix, Inc,, et al,, case No. 19-cv-0484-bhl); and the case was dismissed on summary judgement.

The crooked prosecutor Ken Kratz has raised his head again after being driven from office, the law profession and the state of Wisconsin.

Kratz wants the landmark First Amendment case, New York Times v. Sullivan (1964) overturned.

"Shifting the burden to the defamed person to prove he didn’t plant evidence is, of course, an impossible standard. Courts continue to protect big media against any accountability for outrageous claims made in the name of entertainment. It’s time to overturn the NY Times vs Sullivan’s actual malice hurdle and recognize that real people, and their reputations, are being crushed in the process," the Wisconsin Law Journal quoted Kratz last week.

Kratz' statement follows plaintiff Andrew Colborn request to gut NYT v. Sullivan in a legal filing in 2019, a maneuver widely seen as Hail Mary call.

The core holdings of Sullivan protect rights of people in communities to criticize and hold accountable crooked public office holders Kratz and cops in east-central Wisconsin who routinely view with suspicion those citizens who fervently object to their conduct.

Colborn and Kratz are crazy.

Kratz lies whenever he speaks. He lost his career & reputation long before MaM, when he sexually harassed victims in cases he prosecuted & 15 women came forward. MaM just revealed his true character & his wrongful prosecution of innocent BD & SA. #Ibelieve15women #MakingAMurderer https://t.co/e7tGSnFJw6

— Jerome Buting (@JButing) March 16, 2023

New York Times v. Sullivan

In 1964, the New York Times and civil rights workers prevailed over tyrannical Montgomery police and its odious City officials at the United States Supreme Court, New York Times v. Sullivan .

Justice William Brennan writing for a unanimous court authored a defense of the liberty of the people against government tyrants, a principle that today stands as both an inspiring statement for liberty and a landmark declaration of the power of citizens over public officials.

Writes Brennan:

The First Amendment, said Judge Learned Hand,

presupposes that right conclusions are more likely to be gathered out of a multitude of tongues than through any kind of authoritative selection. To many, this is, and always will be, folly, but we have staked upon it our all. United States v. Associated Press, 52 F.Supp. 362, 372 (D.C.S.D.N.Y. 1943).

Mr. Justice Brandeis, in his concurring opinion in Whitney v. California, 274 U.S. 357, 375-376, gave the principle its classic formulation:

Those who won our independence believed . . . that public discussion is a political duty, and that this should be a fundamental principle of the American government. ... Believing in the power of reason as applied through public discussion, they eschewed silence coerced by law -- the argument of force in its worst form. Recognizing the occasional tyrannies of governing majorities, they amended the Constitution so that free speech and assembly should be guaranteed.

Thus, we consider this case [New York Times v. Sullivan] against the background of a profound national commitment to the principle that debate on public issues should be uninhibited, robust, and wide-open, and that it may well include vehement, caustic, and sometimes unpleasantly sharp attacks on government and public officials. (New York Times v. Sullivan).

Parable of Racist Police

To understand the power of Sullivan today, consider a recent example of racist Wisconsin police in which the DeForest, Wisconsin Police Chief Daniel Furseth was caught on video surveilling and mocking a group of black teenagers dressed for their high school prom, and stopping by an area restaurant, as was reported by a former police intern on YouTube in June 2018.

DeForest, Wisconsin Police Chief Daniel Furseth is a racist
cop who surveiled and mocked five young black men
in some faux black slang with a demeaning, racist and
derogatory narrative caught on video. Furseth was widely
criticized, resigning under fire before joining like-minded police
at the Town, not the City, of Madison, Wisconsin. Prior to
the holdings in New York Times v Sullivan (1964), public
officials like the Furseth could prevail in libel actions, pleading
libel per se against those such as the police intern who
published the video on YouTube. Wrties the whistle-
blower: "This is what the stupid, ignorant, and imbecilic Village
of  DeForest elects to be their 'Top Cop.' This is the racist
Chief of Police Daniel Furseth, who is much like the rest of
DeForest, poorly educated, socially intolerant, and completely
incompetent when it comes to federal law (you know
the one that trumps state and local law when it’s in conflict
with it). Only a redneck and backassward community like
DeForest would want someone like this as a Chief to keep the
black man out."

Observing the youths and commenting in mocking accent, Furseth said: "Okay, we is out on our dates. We got the bitches, we gonna get them, and we gonna give them food. I got my cane, I’ve gots (sic) my suit. Oh baby … Okay, boys, let’s go in. This is the fanciest restaurant we ever been to and it’s called the Steak ‘N Shake. (Laughter) Unbelievable."

A reader should listen to the 36-second clip on YouTube to get a full accounting of the malice and racism that most small-town Wisconsin cops know to keep under wraps. Furseth and his all-white police force really do not like black people.

In August 2018 came reports of four new counts of misconduct by Furseth, (WISC-TV).

Chased out of office, the racist Daniel Furseth was never heard from again, right? Wrong.

Furseth was quickly hired by the town of Madison, not the City, in October 2018.

An official with the town of Madison police department, not the City, confirmed by phone on August 14, 2019 that Furseth is still employed with the Town police, locally notorious for racism, harassment, bogus citations and misconduct.

Pre-New York Times v Sullivan (1964), or had American jurisprudence taken another direction, the Town, DeForest and Furseth may have enjoyed cause for civil action for my opining that Daniel Furseth and Town and Village officials are racist, ignorant pig-fuckers who should have their teeth kicked out.

The former police intern who blew the whistle on YouTube similarly might not enjoy protections for his commentary about the character of the DeForest, Wisconsin Police Dept in which Furseth rose through the all-white ranks to become chief in 2015.

The judiciary over the last 60 years has risen to become a refuge for civil pleadings from social movements working for those persecuted by the State — often the repository of lurid souls like Daniel Furseth and L.B. Sullivan who, one may believe, should be anomalous is a classical liberal society.

Liberties Prevail

The United States Supreme Court of the 1950s, 60s and 70s in significant areas made it appear individual rights prevailing were a dynamic as inevitable as the triumph of reason over racism and liberation over atavistic taboo.

Landmark legal rulings after rulings were won and each victory seemed a fulfillment of long-denied liberties as the civil rights and peace movement flourished.

Brown v Board of Education (1954), New York Times v Sullivan (1964), Loving v Virgina (1967), Brandenburg v. Ohio (1969) and United States v. United States District Court (1972) and dozens more Court holdings promised to buttress citizens against routine incursions of liberty by State actors and law enforcement.

Sullivan under Attack
 
Many today fear an epic backlash, and the challenges to Sullivan are emblematic.

 There are now at least three cases in three different appellate circuits — Second, Sixth and Seventh — in which rightwing plaintiffs appear intent on revisiting New York Times v. Sullivan.

• Sixth Circuit - Nicholas Sandmann v. WP Company LLC, d/b/a [doing business as] The Washington Post (2:19-cv-00019). Plaintiff says he will appeal the dismissal decided in jUly 2019.
• Seventh Circuit - Andrew Colborn v. Netflix, Inc (1:19-cv-00484). Likely to be dismissed in a  Dec 19, 2019 hearing in District court. An appeal is possible.
• Second Circuit - Sarah Palin v New York Times Co, 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 17-3801. Case will be heard on the merits in U.S. District Court.

 Political rightwingers and disgraced cops. Yuck.

Wisconsin Democrats Silent on New Steven Avery Filing as Midterm Voting Begins

Democrats blocking innocents' freedom will lose votes — some votes

Update: See new legal filing and updates site.
Updated - Madison, Wisconsin — Republicans attacking Democrats in Wisconsin on crime and law enforcement are nearly as fervent as Democrats' asserting police support.

Midterm absentee voting has begun in Wisconsin, and key Wisconsin Democrats are all in, (trying to be), for police, no matter the misconduct they defend, no matter the innocent lives destroyed in wrongful conviction cases.

The August filing by wrongfully convicted Steven Avery details a new witness who contacted the Manitowoc County sheriff office to report he saw the prosecution's star courtroom witness pushing the murder victim's car onto the property of the defendant. The August filing also details that Manitowoc County Sheriff Dept failed to disclose the witness's phone call, a partial copy of which was obtained by Avery' s post-conviction attorneys, another clear Brady violation.

In this state with a horribly corrupt criminal justice system, the question remains whether Wisconsin voters will reward statewide Democratic Party officeholders who continue to block freedom for the innocent Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey, both of whom the state attorney general and governor know were framed by corrupt law enforcement, amid Brady violations, evidence planting, among other misconduct. highlighted to a worldwide audience in the Emmy-winning Making a Murderer docuseries.

Avery and his nephew, Brendan Dassey, were convicted of first-degree homicide in separate trials in 2007 for the murder of a young photographer, Teresa Halbach. Both men are serving life sentences.

The case is State of Wisconsin v Steven Avery, featured in Making a Murderer in a spectacular examination of police and politcal corruption.

Dassey is seeking a pardon from Gov. Tony Evers, pointing out the convictions are unreliable. Evers says falsely he cannot pardon Dassey because his Pardon Advisory Board advises him not to pardon Dassey.

Wisconsin Democratic Party officials, Gov. Tony Evers and Attorney General Joshua Kaul, have made the political decision to work for this corrupt law enforcement, even the disgraced district attorney Kenneth R. Kratz who prosecuted both the Avery and Dassey cases. Ken Kratz.

This is political liberalism at its most irrational. Tony Evers and Joshua Kaul will not allow crooked Wisconsin police to take a hit, and both Democrats oppose pardons and agreements to vacate the Dassey-Avery wrongful convictions.

One month into his term in 2019, Attorney General Kaul filed legal responses signaling the DOJ would stall Avery's exoneration by filing procedural objections

Life is cheap to Wisconsin Democrats led by Gov. Evers (D) and Attorney General Kaul (D).

No matter the evidence that has piled up since the airing of Making a Murderer shined a light on police and prosecutorial corruption, Wisconsin Democrats remain committed to keeping in prison those whom they know are innocent.

Democrats love their police, no matter how corrupt, for example, Manitowoc County and Calumet County sheriff operations are, as the midterm elections feature Republican ads showering Wisconsin Democrats as weak on crime.

For Wisconsin Democrats, it's defend police no matter how many innocent lives are destroyed.

Tony Evers rejects Brendan Dassey pardon petition

In December 2019, Tony Evers hid behind his Pardon Advisory Board, a stance the governor has continued through spokesmen in the media and administration who falsely say Evers has no choice but to take the advice of his own advisory board.

But the truth about Evers' pardon power came out two years later, last Spring, when Evers announced he would offer immediate clemency to doctors prosecuted for performing abortions under Wisconsin's nineteenth century antiabortion law. Nothing about Evers' Pardon Advisory Board and its criteria.

Tony Evers, like any Wisconsin governor, has the Constitutional power (executive clemency), to grant pardons, (grants of forgiveness restoring civil rights), sentence commutations (roughly, shortening a sentence), and reprieves, for any reason.

The gubernatorial clemency power is so broad that it is monarchical. Gov. Evers could wake up one morning and decide that only those convicted in courts presided over by judges whom we know are corrupt may be granted royal relief — perfectly within the province of his gubernatorial authority.

Evers set up his Governor's Pardon Advisory Board that advises him on whom to pardon. All clemency decisions remain Evers' and his alone. To be clear, any reporting that also suggests that Evers is bound by his Advisory Board or any other political adviser is erroneous.

Attorney General Joshua Kaul

After the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization last Spring, Joshua Kaul repeated he would not use state resources to enforce the Wisconsin anti-abortion law against convictions of women and doctors.

Going forward

Seth Waxman — a member of Brendan Dassey's legal team — said that when reviewing the outrageous interrogation of Dassey by Mark Wiegert, (current Sheriff of the Calumet County Sheriff's Office), and Tom Fassbender (Wisconsin DoJ, DCI investigator (ret)), that his "blood ran cold."

Gov Evers maintains the explicit state Constitutional authority and right to summarily reject the Board's decision and grant Mr. Dassey his immediate freedom with a stroke of a pen for any or no reason, (Rolling Stone).

This action would entail using capacities that to date Evers has not displayed — intellectual honesty, knowledge of Wisconsin law enforcement, and to the worst of Evers' personal defects, a moral backbone and sensibility to the call of social justice.

Joshua Kaul too could refuse today to oppose Steven Avery's new filing calling for a new trial. A witness, Thomas Sowinski, has come forward and swears in a statement that he saw the prosecution's key trial witness plant the murder victim's RAV4 vehicle on the property of the man, Avery, convicted of homicide in 2007.

In other words, a credible resident swears he caught conspirators red-handed in a frame-up scheme in Wisconsin's infamous murder case drawing headlines in state post-conviction litigation.

Further, Zellner brings another Brady violation to the Court's attention, showing a phone "call to dispatch from a witness claiming to see the vehicle leave the property was not provided to previous counsel. Zellner says her office [recently] received the 'previously suppressed' call that was placed on Nov. 6, 2005. The recording had never been disclosed to the trial defense," reports WBAY-Green Bay, citing another spectacular legal filing on August 16.

A worldwide community remains appalled with Wisconsin "justice." Will Wisconsin voters? November will tell.

Corrupt police worked and worked until planting evidence and character assassination gave a ridiculous local press enough for the get-Avery project in the public mind in east-central Wisconsin. Corrupt Wisconsin courts okayed everything that the prosecution and police did.

The long time common law rule was “1 warrant, 1 search. Not 8 days & 7 searches/entries to SA residence on 1 warrant. We challenged the searches pretrial & (as usual) courts created new law in WI just for SA’s case to allow it. One of many “Steven Avery exceptions” to the law. 🙄 https://t.co/GTLFyVVpdI

— Jerome Buting (@JButing) October 6, 2022

How can you allow the continued suffering of an innocent?

It is tantamount to walking past a dying man on the street, pretending not to hear his call for help. What kind of person does that? YOU?

God has given you the power to do good @Tony4WI @JoshKaulWI. HOW WILL YOU USE IT? pic.twitter.com/UlORf1COPy

— Rhonda SD (@rhonda_sd) August 22, 2022

Indeed, what else are they hiding? They’ve always had this call, and clear time stamps for all calls. MTSO officials & records clerks should give sworn deposition testimony about where & how their records are stored. Maybe someone has the personal integrity not to lie under oath. https://t.co/adRhEs9n8K

— Jerome Buting (@JButing) August 19, 2022

It’s true. They deliberately stripped the call times from the tracks provided. We spent hours trying to discern the sequence & times of calls based only on content & subjects discussed. https://t.co/sxfmcIazrY

— Jerome Buting (@JButing) August 17, 2022

It’s another Brady violation. As usual in these cases, a stroke of luck defense ever found out. A new records clerk apparently made mistake & included Sowinski’s call in new open records request in May 2022. The call was hidden from us before trial & from @ZellnerLaw until now.

— Jerome Buting (@JButing) August 17, 2022

Wisconsin Criminal Justice System Performs Normally — and Insanely

The Flight of Moloch - by William Blake.
The significance of Blake's wok is the moment
when we stop using children as pawns to
sacrifice, rather as treasures to protect.

Commentary

Updated - Madison, Wisconsin — Any decent human being would decline to trick innocent people, especially children, into a false confession of a crime.

But how often have you heard of a cop or a politician speaking out against cops coercing false confessions, or framing innocent members of the public? Never, not in Wisconsin.

Who benefits by the persistence of false confessions? The victims do not; society at large does not; certainly not police-made victims; it seems the police and prosecutors are the only ones who pat themselves on the back for clearing their books of another crime while the perpetrators go free.

That's because the criminal justice and political systems act as authoritarians and have all the power when it comes to prosecuting crimes. 

The state, the sovereign, freely sacrifices innocent lives if it serves their purposes, rather than standing up for and calling out for righteous justice for the innocent.

There generally is no pre- or post-conviction review of the prosecutors and police cases, when misconduct is revealed, though there are isolated examples of this logical follow-up.

If I were a cop, and I even heard of this human rights atrocity of the police framing or coercing a false confession, I would state publicly and repeatedly, "You unbelievable coward, what is the matter with you?"

It's now routine to read of outrageous acts of police tricking children into false confessions. 

Several states have outlawed this unbelievable practice of tricking children.

But the reporting and child advocacy never take the logical next step — the condemnation of the police. We live in a politcal system in which criticism of the police almost never occurs, especially from elected Democrats and Republicans and especially in Wisconsin.

In Wisconsin, the most infamous case of police tricking and lying to children is Brendan Dassey.

After police lied, manipulated and tricked the innocent Brendan Dassey into an outrageous false confession, Wisconsin police gave the two police child molesters — Mark Wiegert (current Sheriff of the Calumet County Sheriff's Office) and Tom Fassbender (Wisconsin Division of Criminal Investigation investigator (ret.) — the Meritorious Service Award from the Wisconsin Association of Homicide Investigators on May 2, 2008.

That's right. Police applauded Wiegert and Fassbender for terrorizing and destroying the life of an innocent kid.

Folks, we live in a society where police routinely prey on the innocent and gullible with the objective of sending them to prison for life. That's a problem, just ask Brendan Dassey and Steven Avery, and Penny Brummer.

What is the difference between what Wiegert and Fassbender did to Brendan Dassey and what child molesters do during the commission of their crimes? Children are lured in by false promises, assaulted,  and are oblivious to what hit them.

See John Oliver's segment on the use of the Reid Technique nonsense, police interrogations and false confessions are aptly characterized as junk science.

Said Oliver: "The problem with police interrogations right now is the same problem that we have with policing at large. They're emboldened to act however they'd like in a system where they hold an undue amount of power with very few protections for civilians, especially the most vulnerable, because there can be little to no consequences for extracting a false confession."

Act locally. In Wisconsin we need to vote out Gov. Tony Evers and Attorney General Joshua Kaul for protecting dirty cops and keeping those whom they know to be innocent in prison.

Meanwhile, stay current on the litigation of Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey's crusade to shame Tony Evers into a pardon.

Brendan Dassey needed someone sitting with him in class to help him figure out what the teacher was asking him to do. But he had no help when interrogated. Even with help, police are trained to neutralize guardians. Lawyers can't be neutralized. @TheArcUS https://t.co/JqCn4Vgr89

— Steven A Drizin (@SDrizin) April 27, 2022

Gov. Evers Rejects Clemency; Pardon Regime Bows to Unreliable Justice System

 Sacco and Vanzetti and Corrupt Judge - Ben Shahn

Evers' Political Grift Goes Unchallenged

Madison, Wisconsin — The Wisconsin media often reports on new pardons granted by Gov. Tony Evers. 

Facts are omitted in coverage misinforming readers about matters of grave import pertaining to our criminal justice system, the governor's power and Evers' political commitments.

Whether such misinformation is relayed purposefully, or committed out of a lack of diligence and intelligence on the part of Wisconsin journalists is beside the point. Misinformation only harms public affairs and private lives.

Tony Evers, like any Wisconsin governor, has the Constitutional power (executive clemency), to grant pardons, (grants of forgiveness restoring civil rights), sentence commutations (roughly, shortening a sentence), and reprieves, for any reason.

The gubernatorial clemency power is so broad that it is monarchical. Gov. Evers could wake up one morning and decide that only those who have completed their sentences from judges whom we know are corrupt may be granted royal relief — perfectly within the province of his gubernatorial authority.

In a piece for the State Bar of Wisconsin' journal, the Wisconsin Lawyer, past chair of the governor's Pardon Advisory Board, Donald Leo Bach, notes, "In Wisconsin, the power to pardon belongs exclusively to the governor, who can exercise it essentially in any manner the governor sees fit."

Evers' Pardon Advisory Board's website implies that criteria established for pardons and all clemency action have the force of law, but this is not just inaccurate and misleading, it is an out-and-out lie that has gained a firm footing.

"State law does not create a pardon advisory board or require its use. Instead, individual Governors decide whether to use a pardon advisory board and how to structure the board’s membership and work," notes the Wisconsin Legislative Council, IssueBrief (Oct 2019).

Advisory boards do not change Wisconsin governors' Constitutional power, but as in Evers' administration, advisory boards can serve as shields to protect politcal acts of cowardice and dishonesty on the part of the governor.

For some journalists, it is difficult to believe a politician engages in cowardice and dishonesty, so politicians' statements must be reported as fact, and not reported as self-serving statements.

Zero sentence commutations

Evers' predecessor, Gov. Scott Walker, refused to use his power of executive clemency and granted zero sentence commutations and zero pardons, in accordance with his political commitments.

Gov. Tony Evers uses his power of executive clemency, but has granted zero sentence commutations, in accordance with Evers' political commitments protecting a corrupt criminal justice system.

This aligns Evers with Scott Walker on sentence commutations, and differentiates Evers from Govs. Dreyfus, Earl and Thompson who together commuted 46 sentences between 1979-2001.

Pardons

Evers has granted 449 pardons as of March 24, 2022.

Evers set up his Governor's Pardon Advisory Board that advises him on whom to pardon.

All clemency decisions remain Evers' and his alone. To be clear, any reporting that also suggests that Evers is bound by his Advisory Board or other political adviser is erroneous.

Press coverage

One problem in press coverage is common omission of the fact Evers refuses to commute criminal sentences. When noted, Evers' refusal is followed by a paragraph re-stating that the Pardon Board's criteria disallows innocents still in prison to be considered for pardons by the Board.

Casual readers, including many in the Innocence community, conclude falsely that Evers has no choice but to follow the dictates of his own advisory board.

Evers' anti-commutation commitment seems ironic, especially in a state where law enforcement misconduct is rampant in Waupaca County, Shawano County and Manitowoc County, for example, and found throughout the state.

Why Evers adopts Scott Walker's model

Why did Evers set up his pardon regime in which applicants must wait years after serving a sentence, while simultaneously also refusing commutations?

Evers is offering political protection to the criminal justice system and law enforcement as he implicitly accepts as fact the system's findings, convictions and criminal sentencing. Evers effectively covers up for criminal justice system misconduct.

This, even as he attempts to accrue the political benefits of compassion that attend to an altogether weak and passive pardon regime.

Not once has Evers called into question dishonest cops, crooked prosecutors, or intellectually dishonest judges.

Evers could stand up against small-town injustice, police corruption and the likes of Ken Kratz, the disgraced prosecutor of Brendan Dassey and Steven Avery of Making a Murderer, (Netflix, Inc), infamy, as well as myriad other cases of injustice.

Tony Evers owes no more fealty to the Wisconsin Judiciary and the criminal justice system than he does to the findings and integrity of the state legislature. 

Evers' political commitment defending the integrity of the criminal justice system drives his execution of zero commutations and his own selective pardon criteria, stated and unstated.

Consider Brendan Dassey and Steven Avery

The 2015 Making a Murderer pulls back the curtain on Wisconsin's criminal justice system so rigorously that no official can state, 'We didn't know.'

Both Dassey and Avery were wrongfully convicted of homicide at separate trials in 2007.

Ex-District Attorney Ken Kratz was forced to resign after Gov. Jim Doyle began removal proceedings in 2010 after a favors-for-sex, harassment scandal dating back years came to light.

Kratz, fatuously claimed innocence as the DOJ investigated him, citing his narcissistic personality disorder, sexual compulsion disorder and multiple drug addictions. The Wisconsin DOJ did not press criminal charges on a fellow law enforcement official nor review any of his past cases.

Not one elected politician demanded that all of Kratz' cases, including Dassey and Avery's, be re-examined because Kratz and east-central Wisconsin police are manifestly unreliable, citing Kratz' narcissistic personality disorder, sexual compulsion disorder and multiple drug addictions, for starters.

A member of Dassey's post-conviction defense team, former U.S. Solicitor General, Seth Waxman, said in Oct 2019 in Madison, "I have never had a case that has troubled me more than this case, that has kept me awake at night, that makes me anxious and sad. And that's because I know that Brendan Dassey is innocent."

Way forward

Gov. Evers needs to set up a Conviction Integrity Unit that acts as a liaison with Innocence Projects and other human rights groups to present cases they believe to have been dealt with unjustly and corruptly.

As noted in the Innocence Project - Conviction Integrity Units - Best Practices article, truth, liberty and justice need not be sacrificed because of corruption:

[2] c. Review is in the interests of justice

It should be noted that in many jurisdictions prosecutors and courts have explicit statutory or common law authority to vacate convictions or reduce sentences in the interests of justice. It should be emphasized, however, that the orientation or mindset of an 'interests of justice' review is frequently an
important element in making a judgment about whether relief is warranted when reconstructing what occurred in old cases where there are, as in most cases, a need to resolve issues with less than perfect information.

  d. The fact that a defendant pled guilty or is no longer incarcerated should not be a bar to examining cases

We as Wisconsin citizens must demand that no elected official works to keep in prison those whom they know to be innocent, and withhold our political support until innocent men and women breathe free air.

If Tony Evers and future governors won't correct the failings of our criminal justice system, we as citizens must do so.

Attorneys Demand Brendan Dassey Pardon as Gov. Tony Evers Refuses to Free Innocent in Prison

Called Out — 'Cruel and Cowardly' Tony Evers 'Shifting and Ducking Responsibility'

Updated - Madison, Wisconsin — The innocent Brendan Dassey has now spent more than half of his life in prison, since being pulled from school by corrupt police, Mark Wiegert (current Sheriff of the Calumet County Sheriff's Office), and Tom Fassbender (Wisconsin DoJ, DCI investigator (ret)).

In an extraordinary development this week, former Steven Avery civil liberties attorneys Dean Strang and Jerry Buting, not Dassey's attorneys, have demanded Gov. Tony Evers (D) order the release of the innocent Dassey, citing Wisconsin police tricks, deceit and judicial intellectual dishonesty in a letter dated March 2, 2022, under the letterhead of Strang and Bradley, LLC, (WISC-TV, CBS58).

Strang and Buting represented Dassey's uncle, Steven Avery, featured in the Emmy-winning Making a Murderer docuseries depicting Wisconsin's notorious "Corruption County," Manitowoc County, in the state's east-central region known for small-town injustice.

Dassey and his uncle, Steven Avery, were convicted of first-degree homicide for the 2005 murder of a young photographer, Teresa Halbach. Both men are serving life sentences.

Wisconsin Democrats have backed the prosecution, and refuse to free Dassey in its politcal calculation to portray Democrats as tough on crime, no matter that Dassey and Avery are innocent. 

The Democrat political scheme also serves to protect the current Wisconsin Attorney General's mother, Peg Lautenschlager, for her work in courting and protecting corrupt Wisconsin police and aiding the prosecution of Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey.

Dassey's case has spurred other states to ban police lying to juveniles as a means of tricking children into uttering false confessions, as deceptive police interrogation practices come under increasing fire, (Daily Herald). (See also LaVigne and Miles, Under the Hood: Brendan Dassey, Language Impairments, and Judicial Ignorance).

Tricking innocent children has defenders in Wisconsin: Police, Attorney General Joshua Kaul (D), every elected Wisconsin Democrat, and Gov. Tony Evers (D) singled out by Strang and Buting as a "governor ... of cruelty [and] cowardice."

 

Our message to Gov Evers: “By constitutional design, you can be a governor of grace, not of cruelty or cowardice. We urge you now to be exactly that,” Dean Strang & Jerry Buting wrote in a letter to the governor asking him to shorten Brendan’s sentencehttps://t.co/0SyfDnPDUe

— Jerome Buting (@JButing) March 4, 2022

As governor, Tony Evers has the unique and unquestioned authority to grant pardons and commutations under the Wisconsin Constitution, a power Evers has squirmed from in the Dassey case out of concern past Democrat politicians would be mired in scandal and corruption charges.

Strang and Buting join over 250 national legal experts and human rights activists in calling for a pardon or commutation for Brendan Dassey.

A member of Dassey's post-conviction defense team, former U.S. Solicitor General, Seth Waxman, said in Oct 2019 in Madison, "I have never had a case that has troubled me more than this case, that has kept me awake at night, that makes me anxious and sad. And that's because I know that Brendan Dassey is innocent."

Confidence in the integrity of Wisconsin's Judiciary can no longer be reasonably asserted in the face of the Dassey-Avery infamy. It appears Dean Strang and Jerry Buting have had enough.

In Wisconsin, it is the law itself that perpetrated the destruction of innocent life. And most everyone goes along as bystanders.