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One hopes for justice against dirty cops
such as Manitowoc County Sheriff'
Lt. James Lenk. Lenk infamously
"found the (incriminating) keys to
(murder victim) Halbach's vehicle inside
Avery's bedroom in plain view after
officers from Calumet County,
the state Division of Criminal Investigation
and Two Rivers Police Department
apparently did not see them in previous
searches," (Appleton Post-Crescent).
Now, a "'never-before-seen video'
shows that evidence against
the subject of the
hit documentary
Making a Murderer must have been
planted or fabricated,
defense
attorney Kathleen Zellner tells
Newsweek." This is a frame-up in
plain sight. The work of the new
Wisconsin attorney general will
determine the lives of the innocent. |
Josh Kaul's character, or lack thereof will decide fate of innocents
Madison, Wisconsin — The
truth shall make you free is an article of faith for the wrongfully convicted.
In the Wisconsin criminal case featured in
Making a Murderer, an obvious case of
small-town injustice is kept shielded from a new trial, lest the duplicity, corruption and misconduct defining the Manitowoc County District Attorney and Sheriff's Dept become more of a spectacle.
Still, 2019 will be a year to remember in Wisconsin legal history. Forget procedure and the rule of law. One man will decide whether the innocent live free, or die behind bars.
Not Sheboygan County Circuit Judge Angela Sutkiewicz presiding over Steven Avery's post-conviction litigation. She will likely be bounced off the case. A bureaucrat and politician has to have her priorities.
There is a new attorney general and governor in Wisconsin.
The election of Attorney General Josh Kaul (D) and Gov. Tony Evers (D) are generally presented as
good news for post-conviction relief of innocents in Wisconsin.
But Gov. Evers is an empty suit on criminal justice reform and civil liberties, as Evers is on most public policy.
But
Attorney General Josh Kaul appears equipped to restore the good name of the Wisconsin Dept of Justice that functioned as an adjunct of the Republican Party for the last 12 years.
Kaul had lifelong exposure to what Wisconsin police and prosecutors are capable of, before serving in the United States Attorney's Office for the District of Maryland.
Kaul did not of course campaign on the rights of the accused, post-conviction relief, challenging police misconduct or the importance of liberty in American society.
The mob that is the electorate does not comprehend such matters deriving from Constitutional niceties, though this condition may be improving.
Josh Kaul, Fond du Lac-Oshkosh boy made good, will likely not become another Roberts Jackson.
But supporters of the wrongfully convicted Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey look to Kaul with modest hopes: To work with Avery's post-conviction attorney,
Kathleen Zellner, and good-faith adherence to post-conviction procedure and transparency.
In so many words, simple decency, ethics and the light of day, a professional climate that cannot sustain these wrongful convictions anymore.
Carole Davis, a supporter of the wrongfully convicted, asks of Josh Kaul in part, "are you an honest man."
I don't know the answer to Davis' question. I do know conviction, imprisoning and defending the indefeasible is standard fare of too many jurists who out of convenience and career destroy the lives of those whom they know to be innocent. Penny Brummer is another living example.
Josh Kaul is on political probation with this Wisconsin citizen. I have seen too much to be surprised by anything Kaul may do
vis s vis Avery and Dassey.
Surveying social media the last several months, lay supporters of the innocents appear scared, knowing that a dedicated attorney general who would act from
malice and other base motives is among the most dangerous people this republic can produce.
But who would have thought that an obscure Netflix docu-series could so move millions so that a provincial and corrupt county in east-central Wisconsin becomes the focus of demands for simple justice?
Social currents, ripples of creation and good deed, nourished by light can conspire to make one person ensure that Avery and Dassey go free.
Who is Josh Kaul?
Less than a drop in the great, blue motion of the sunlit sea, a drop who may yet sparkle through history and the lives of innocents.
