Making a Murderer — Wisconsin DoJ Plays Games as Wrongfully Convicted Lose Years of Life

Attorney General Joshua Kaul's 'Defend Wrongful Convictions at All Costs' Commitment Is Betrayal of Wisconsin

Madison, Wisconsin — Wisconsin Republicans and Democrats agree on a policy area: Defend wrongful convictions.

Consider the case of Wisconsin v. Steven A. Avery, featured in the Emmy-winning documentary, Making a Murderer.

In post-conviction litigation, the once-exonerated Steven Avery presents game-changing evidence to the Wisconsin state judiciary exposing law enforcement in its second frame-up job against Avery for homicide in 2005.

The second frame-up was committed shortly after Avery prepared evidence for his $36-million civil rights suit for misconduct in the first frame-up (Ferak, Appleton Post-Crescent). Law enforcement officials reasoned if they could pen a homicide case onto Avery, the resultant prosecution would silence the multi-million-dollar civil action.

Brady Violations

In court filings, Avery has chronicled six major Brady violations in post-conviction litigation. 

Brady violations are instances when law enforcement disregards its duty to notify a defendant of exculpatory evidence — for the police purpose of securing a conviction, then defending the wrongful conviction.

By effectively blocking exculpatory evidence that law enforcement controls or accumulates, law enforcement becomes the architect of court proceedings to arrive at guilty verdicts and other rulings disfavorable to the defense.

This imposed system that a defendant must navigate is found to violate defendants' civil liberties and Due Process in Brady v. Maryland, (373 U.S. 83 (1963). See also Wisconsin v. Gary Lee Wayerski, from the Supreme Court of Wisconsin, (2015). [Under Wayerski, the Court finds that the prosecution must fulfill its Brady obligation by alerting defense to exculpatory evidence in its possession, even if the evidence is also housed elsewhere.]

In Avery's post-conviction litigation, the Wisconsin Dept of Justice refuses to even respond in legal filings to chronicles of Brady violations and new evidence brought forth, much less accede to a hearing or vacating a corruptly secured conviction, least exposure brings the State to public ridicule.

Instead, the DoJ under direction of Attorney General Joshua Kaul (D) makes motion after motion to delay and block the courts from even considering a request to consider a hearing.

So, while the Brady v. Maryland case acclaiming Due Process is 58-years-old, there is no enforcement guarantee or Constitutional ethics in the Wisconsin judiciary that compels law enforcement to follow the law, so law enforcement flaunts its obligations and judges turn a blind eye.

The Wisconsin Dept of Justice, which argues against Due Process rights in the 2015 Wisconsin v. Gary Lee Wayerski (implementing Brady), today takes the position of, We don't like your Due Process rights, we don't like our Brady obligations, we don't like your bringing up law enforcement law-breaking in your post-conviction litigation.

The anti-Brady ethos lives in Avery's post-conviction litigation as the State of Wisconsin filed a frivolous motion that is demonstrably false and that, further, defames and personally maligns Avery's attorney, Kathleen Zellner (Wisconsin legal filing, April 16, 2021).

In response, attorney Zellner penned a devastating chronicle of State conduct that shows the Wisconsin Dept of Justice to be engaged in serial law-breaking and hostility to its law-breaking being mentioned in Court at the costs of an innocent man's life.

Writes Zellner in Reply to State's Response, April 22, 2021:

It is a supreme irony that in one of the most blatant examples of a wrongful conviction the State's only response is to falsely accuse Mr. Avery's lead counsel of nefarious conduct for discovering a 6th Brady violation. Rather than seeking justice, the State wants to 'slay the messenger' by putting forth more false allegations, a skill that it has mastered over the last 16 years. The State turns a blind eye towards its past actions of withholding exculpatory evidence. When the State disclosed a CD of violent porn from the Dassey-Janda computer 12 years after the CD was created and concealed from prior counsel, the State argued, as it does now, that Mr. Avery was attempting to add new material to his § 974.06 motion. (740.5). When the State facilitated the destruction in 2011 of evidence it had agreed to allow Mr. Avery to test, the State argued, as is it does now, that Mr. Avery was attempting to add new material to his § 974.06 motion. (See 770.2). This Court did not accept those disingenuous responses then, and it should reject the same disingenuous response now. (pp 1-2. Reply to State's Response, April 22, 2021)

The community behind Steven Avery remains optimistic.

But the State's reply to Avery's April 22, 2021 chronicle of State misconduct is to strike the whole reply from the record. More game-playing.

There is a huge body of Constitutional law that makes explicit citizen's rights.

The State of Wisconsin will never heed to this law while a corrupt judiciary keeps rewarding bad faith and ill will of the government towards the citizenry for the purpose of securing injustice.

Attorney General Joshua Kaul, who assumed office in 2019, has conspicuously failed to launch any DoJ investigations into law enforcement, including his own department, despite the widespread criticism of police, Ken Kratz, Tom Fassbender (Wisconsin Division of Criminal Investigation investigator (Ret)) and Mark Wiegert, (current Sheriff of the Calumet County Sheriff's Office), for example, in the Avery case.

Kaul's mother, former Wisconsin Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager (2003-2007) worked to clear law enforcement of misconduct in the first east-central Wisconsin crime pinned on Avery for which he was exonerated in 2003. [Wisconsin Dept of Justice report of the investigation and prosecution of the wrongful conviction of the exonerated Steven Avery; authored by Amy Lehmann, Deb Strauss, Dec 17 2003.]

Point is high Democratic Wisconsin state officials remain opposed to Constitutional rights, and advocate, instead, for law enforcement which has grown into a grave threat to the lives and liberty of Wisconsin citizens.

Watch this space for updates on the Steve Avery post-conviction case.

Like a psychopath with his knee to Avery's neck, the State of Wisconsin works to bleed the life out of an innocent man.

And there is nothing law enforcement can inflict that the Wisconsin Dept of Justice will not defend.

Steven Avery Appeal Filed — Shines Light on Wisconsin Law Enforcement Corruption in Fight for Exoneration

Is the government required to follow the law when the state
investigates, and litigates against a defendant? Yes,
Steven Avery argues in a 135-page brief filed today in
Wisconsin appellate court. Avery argues the law enforcement
team that conspired to destroy biological evidence engaged
in an illegal scheme that runs afoul of the effect of  two
critical cases protecting innocents. Reads the brief in part,
"[T]e Youngblood test examines the government’s role
  in  the  circumstances  that  led  to  the  destruction  of
the evidence. 488 U.S. at 56–58. If a criminal
defendant can satisfy either  test,  then  a  court 
will  rule the destruction of evidence was a violation
of due process and reverse the defendant’s conviction. 
Youngblood, 488 U.S. at 54; Trombetta, 467 U.S. at 484." 

Updated - Madison, Wisconsin — A much-anticipated appeal from Steven Avery was filed in state appellate court this morning, court records indicate, (State of Wisconsin v. Steven A. Avery, Appeal Number 2017AP002288).

The 135-page appeal asserts numerous instances of law-breaking committed by Wisconsin law enforcement including DNA evidence destruction, evidence concealment, myriad Brady violations, and deprivations of Due Process and Constitutional rights that helped to convict and illegally block post-conviction litigation efforts of a man whom millions world-wide believe to be innocent.

The case is State of Wisconsin v. Steven A. Avery, Appeal Number 2017AP002288.

Steven Avery is featured in the Emmy-winning documentary, Making a Murderer.

The text of the appeal is posted on social media and the site, WorkwithKZ, and can be found here as well.

Attorneys Kathleen T. Zellner and Steven G. Richards are Mr. Avery's attorneys.

The bizarre post-litigation case includes a flaunting of Wisconsin's evidence preservation law in a law enforcement scheme that saw the remains of murder victim Teresa Halbach illegally transported to the Halbach family in 2011 by Calumet County Sheriff Deputy Jeremy Hawkins, Sergeant Investigator Mark Wiegert,and DoJ Attorneys Thomas Fallon and Norman Gahn.

Chutzpah and Wisconsin Law Enforcement

Fallon and Gahn helped to prosecute the Avery case in 2007, then in 2011 destroyed biological evidence in their scheme, presenting to the Halbach family numerous bones as Teresa Halbach's remains.

Now, Fallon and Gahn argue in state appellate court that since the evidence they destroyed is forensically worthless because of contamination, its exculpatory value to defendant Avery can no longer be ascertained.

Fallon and Gahn argue that the evidence they helped destroy was "inexplicably released" from the Calumet County Sheriff’s Department’s evidence control unit in their March 29, 2019 legal filing, (p 13).

"Inexplicably released" is a disingenuous characterization for the illegal destruction of evidence that not only implicates Fallon, Gahn and Wiegert, but also is a clear violation of the Due Process Clause, and is a Brady violation under Wisconsin judicial doctrine.

Avery in his brief today argue that Wisconsin's "DNA evidence preservation statute presumes that every violation constitutes 'bad faith,'" (See pp 128-1320.)

The brief is also critical of the lower circuit court's handling of the post-conviction litigation by Judge Angela W. Sutkiewicz, arguing the judge abused her discretion in several instances, and that her reasoning on several points is deeply flawed.

Abusing discretion. That's legal language for grave misconduct that in this case prevents Avery from receiving a fair hearing in post-conviction litigation.

Judge Angela Sutkiewicz is blasted in Steven's brief as "abusing [her] discretion" many times. Abusing discretion is reaching conclusions against reason and law — blocking a fair trial. AS reached predetermined results, then used slipshod reasoning to support her order.

— Michael Leon (@mal644) October 17, 2019

Brady Violations

Violations of the Brady Rule, prosecutors’ duty under the Brady v. Maryland (1963) case to turn over to the defense exculpatory evidence are "epidemic," to borrow a term from an opinion from former Judge Alex Kozinski, Chief Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. (Cassens-Weiss, ABA Journal).

The state of Wisconsin law enforcement conducts
its Brady obligations as though these constitutional safe-
guards were optional, and of no importance. Steven
Avery is arguing against this position and Avery is
on strong footing as he attempts to gain his freedom.

In the coming weeks, the Wisconsin population may learn what a Brady motion violation is, and why the state's Brady violations should also result in vacating this wrongful conviction in this case, as is argued in the brief.

The state of Wisconsin's failure to disclose exculpatory evidence in its litigation against Avery should result in a reversal or a vacating of the 2007 conviction.

In Feb 2019, notes the Evidence Prof Blog, the burden is now on the state in Wisconsin to follow the dictates of Brady after a powerful opinion in State v. Wayerski, 2019 WL 471276 (Wis. 2019):

[T]he Supreme Court of Wisconsin issued an opinion that might have huge implications for the Brady doctrine. Under that doctrine the prosecution has an affirmative obligation under the Due Process Clause to disclose material exculpatory evidence to the defense. In its opinion in State v. Wayerski, 2019 WL 471276 (Wis. 2019), however, the Supreme Court of Wisconsin held that Wisconsin courts had shifted the focus from the State's misconduct to the defense's due diligence and issued a course correction.

To read the State's position in State of Wisconsin v. Steven A. Avery, misleading the defense, concealing evidence and destroying evidence are effectively not a matter of Constitutional importance.

See also:

• WorkwithKZ
• State v. Steven A. Avery, Appeal Number 2017AP002288, Court of Appeals District 2, Court History
• Manitowoc County Case Number 2005CF000381 State of Wisconsin vs. Steven A. AVERY #122987

Making a Murderer — Dark Cloud Hangs over Wisconsin Judiciary Amid Corruption Concerns

The once exonerated Steven Avery faces
his most malicious enemy in the
Democratic Party and a corrupt
Wisconsin Judiciary that has abdicated
its duty to act with impartiality. Damage,
destruction are the aims against Avery
and his nephew who have committed a
mortal sin in Wisconsin: Fighting back
against state violence and corrupt cops.

Avery Seeks New Trial and Evidentiary Hearing in a Corrupt State Court System

Commentary

Update II: Rebuttal to State's Response in Opposition of Mr. Avery's Petition. This is a devastating public explanation that the DOJ undoubtedly will misrepresent amid its posturing that there is nothing to see here.

Updated: Madison, Wisconsin — Steven Avery and his nephew, Brendan Dassey, were convicted of first-degree homicide in Wisconsin in 2007 for the murder of a young photographer, Teresa Halbach. 

Both men are serving life sentences following much criticized investigations and trials held in east-central Wisconsin, known locally for small-town justice and police corruption.

Avery is appealing to the Wisconsin Supreme Court in post-conviction litigation, seeking a new trial and an evidentiary heating in his August petition.

The case is State of Wisconsin v Steven Avery, featured in the Emmy-winning Making a Murderer docuseries.

But the once-exonerated Steven Avery faces a vendetta from multiple foes, including the Wisconsin Democratic leadership, corrupt law enforcement and the Wisconsin Judiciary which has largely abdicated its role as protector of individual Constitutional rights in favor of covering for police misconduct.

Yesterday, the Wisconsin DoJ filed a response opposing Steven Avery's petition for a hearing before the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

Avery seeks a public evidentiary hearing on new evidence that was hidden by the prosecution for the purpose of blocking material facts pointing to Avery's innocence. He also seeks a new trial, reasoning that the non-existent case for his guilt combined with the clear law enforcement misconduct would make the spectacle of another guilty trial verdict impossible.

Notes attorney Jerome Buting: "State’s response to Avery’s @ZellnerLaw petition opposes SCOW review, claiming SA was not treated differently because his case was 'the subject of a television show.' Really? In no other case has WI fought so desperately to avoid any evidentiary hearing."

At each point is his post-conviction litigation, the State DOJ has blocked, delayed, deterred and opposed Avery's quest for his second exoneration.

A reader ought consider this whole affair is not akin to sick, ole-boy Louisiana corruption. Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Oklahoma and Missouri have nothing on Wisconsin police-prosecutor corruption, more insidious than any conduct our fellows to the South can conjure.

Few believe in the impartiality of the Wisconsin Judiciary which is capable of doing anything in service to a corrupt police force.

WI’s phobia of an evidentiary hearing in Avery’s case can only be because they know truth would be revealed. Better to cover up #corruptiwoc than seek real justice. But it will only increase public distrust of American justice. #makingamurderer #illusionofjustice #brokensystem

— Jerome Buting (@JButing) September 9, 2021

Wisconsin has a nefarious cast of characters in law enforcement, but the Avery and Dassey cases approach the demented.

Kenneth R. Kratz, former Calumet County District Attorney, (1992-2010), was forced to resign in disgrace in 2010 for outrageous sexual misconduct in 2009, perhaps earlier, just two years after prosecuting the Avery-Dassey cases.

Kratz is self-described as suffering from narcissistic personality disorder, sexual compulsion disorder and multiple drug addictions.

But the Wisconsin DoJ has defended the work of this same repulsive figure Kratz in Avery's post-conviction litigation, instead of launching an investigation into Wisconsin law enforcement, Kratz and other prosecutors' subsequent conduct to determine the reliability of convictions.

"The State ... conveys an attitude of impunity for its past actions of withholding exculpatory evidence and its current action of continuing the concealment of its destruction of potentially exculpatory or useful evidence," writes Avery attorney, Kathleen Zellner in 2019 in a legal filing in appellate court.

The State of Wisconsin DoJ did worse in post-conviction litigation than convey an attitude of impunity. The DoJ has chided the defense for bringing multiple Brady violations to the attention of the Court, so strong is the prosecution's confidence that the Court will sustain the DoJ's positions.

Avery's attorney, Zellner, reacted with restrained outrage this posture.

Zellner replied to the Court on April 22, 2021: "It is a supreme irony that in one of the most blatant examples of a wrongful conviction the State's only response is to falsely accuse Mr. Avery's lead counsel of nefarious conduct for discovering a 6th Brady violation. Rather than seeking justice, the State wants to 'slay the messenger' by putting forth more false allegations, a skill that it has mastered over the last 16 years. The State turns a blind eye toward its past actions of withholding exculpatory evidence."

On July 28, 2021, the Court of Appeals (Dist II), delivered a results-oriented decision and opinion so blatant in adopting the State's errors that lay parties revealed the decision to be rife with misstatement, and misinterpretation of evidence (Reddit). Avery's attorney, Kathleen Zellner, followed up with a petition to the Wisconsin Supreme Court some four weeks later.

On Sept 8, 2021, when the DoJ filed its response opposing Avery's petition for a hearing before the Wisconsin Supreme Court, and the large pro-Avery community around the world reacted with gasps and disgust.

This DOJ posture, haughty and disingenuous, raises the question, if the State is so certain that its conviction of Avery and Brendan Dassey are on the level, why does it oppose bringing the case to light before the State high court, an evidentiary hearing, and a new trial?

Avery advocates have noted that the DOJ failed to even challenge Avery's arguments in its response, instead taking on the tone of how dare you challenge the integrity of this conviction?

Attorney Zellner, who has seen every type of State depravity in her practice around the country freeing dozens of wrongfully convicted persons, seemed shook by the pathological tone of the Democrat-led Dept of Justice's latest filing that reads more like a politcal document subtly calling for Party loyalty that a legal filing made in good faith.

Zellner sent out three tweets, deleted two, before she noted: "If we had wanted to re-read the same error filled COA decision again we could have. The State’s Regurgitation Response addresses none of the errors —it just repeats them. Justice delayed again for Steven Avery."

If we had wanted to re-read the same error filled COA decision again we could have. The State’s Regurgitation Response addresses none of the errors —it just repeats them. Justice delayed again for Steven Avery. @MakingAMurderer

— Kathleen Zellner (@ZellnerLaw) September 9, 2021

This is Wisconsin.

This is where Martin Lipske, a contemptible District Attorney in Iron County in northern Wisconsin, was driven into retirement just before Lipske fronted for child trafficking schemes.

So, the Wisconsin District Attorney Association named Lipske Prosecutor of the Year for the Department of Justice in 2016, and awarded Lipske the E. Michael McCann Award from the DA Association. 

The Wisconsin Judiciary cannot be counted on to police corrupt law enforcement, certainly not an odious figure like Kratz and the Democrat-led Wisconsin Dept of Justice.

Behind the scenes, the DOJ's attempt to rewrite the state's Brady doctrine will figure into this case.

The four Republicans on the Wisconsin Supreme Court are Avery's hope as Wisconsin Democrats will do their worst to protect wrongful convictions of Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey.

The DOJ dismissal of a Brady violation claim is preposterous, for instance, that even the DOJ notes features the defense failure to raise an issue of omission to which the defense was never alerted.

Would love to know how Avery was supposed to raise the destroyed bones argument in his 2013, when they were given back to the family in 2011 and none of his post-conviction attorney's knew about it.

I'd like to see any documentation he was alerted to this screw-up by the state. pic.twitter.com/0Xmy0P32w5

— TickTockManitowoc (@TManitowoc) September 8, 2021

Another Innocent Sent Behind Bars for Life, More Prosecutorial Misconduct

The expectation today is that innocents are sent to prison en masse and police and prosecutors routinely commit misconduct.

From the New York Times:

How many constitutional violations will it take before the New Orleans district attorney’s office is held to account for the culture of negligence and outright dishonesty that has pervaded it for decades?

In dozens of cases over the years, the office — largely under the command of former District Attorney Harry Connick, Sr. — failed to turn over material to defense lawyers that would have helped their clients.

And yet the Supreme Court refused to find any pattern of misconduct when it was confronted in 2011 with one of the most egregious examples in memory: the case of John Thompson, who spent 14 years on death row before a private investigator discovered that several prosecutors in Mr. Connick’s office had lied for years about a crime-lab report that ultimately led to Mr. Thompson’s exoneration.

In an astonishingly myopic opinion by Justice Clarence Thomas, the court threw out Mr. Thompson’s $14 million jury award on the grounds that he had shown a violation only in his own case, and not a pattern of misconduct, as the justices have required.

In reality, Mr. Thompson’s case was one of many in which New Orleans prosecutors disregarded their constitutional duties. Louisiana courts have overturned at least 36 convictions as a result of these violations. And those are just the cases where wrongdoing was uncovered. Unfortunately, it’s all too easy for unscrupulous prosecutors to hide evidence that might hinder a conviction.

That’s what happened in the latest example of misconduct out of New Orleans, where prosecutors only last month disclosed a 19-year-old memo that undercuts their case against Robert Jones, who was sentenced to life without parole for a 1992 kidnapping, robbery and rape that he denies committing.

Failing to turn over material to defense attorneys is called a Brady Violation, and as U.S. Circuit Judge Alex Kozinski notes, this misconduct is rampant. See, for example, Brady Violations and the explosive book, Licensed to Lie by Sidney Powell.

As Brady violations by prosecutors are rarely pursued, what inducements do prosecutors have to reveal exculpatory information, as required by law?

Truth? Justice? Ethics? You jest.

Truth and justice have no starring role in the American criminal justice system.

Ask Penny Brummer, an innocent woman pursued, persecuted and convicted of first degree murder in 1994 for being a lesbian. Subsequently, Madison (Wisconsin) police, Dane County Sheriff's investigators and Dane County District Attorney prosecutors (including former D.A. Brian Blanchard) and former Judge Patrick Fiedler found charging and convicting Ms. Brummer convenient (Protess, Huffington Post) (Lueders, Isthmus).

No evidence presented, no evidence needed.

Wisconsin Dems Block Exoneration Seekers

Image is by Otto Dix, German anti-fascist artist
whose work was confiscated by the NAZIs and
displayed as degenerate art. "The Nazis labeled Dix a
'degenerate,' but the term is better applied to the society
he depicted—cannibalizing itself and hurtling toward
destruction," writes Alina Cohen in The Guardian.
Wisconsin today has veered into fascism, and literally no
elected official challenges the police-prison state which
sends innocents to their doom.

Justice Delayed in Making a Murderer Cases

MADISON, WIS — In a legal spectacle this Spring, Thomas Sowinski of Manitowoc swore 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 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.

Sowinski appears the stuff of movies — maybe, some mused, in response Wisconsin's new attorney general would seek to vacate two murder convictions, amid a vow to clean up law enforcement in east-central Wisconsin.

Movies are not political reality in Wisconsin.

The case is State of Wisconsin v Steven Avery, featured in the Emmy-winning Making a Murderer docuseries.

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

Most see the spectacle as revenge prosecutions of innocents in Manitowoc and Calumet counties, an insular region of the state known for small-town justice — injustice.

DOJ delay strategy

The Wisconsin Dept of Justice quickly responded on April 16 to the Sowinski statement, filed by Avery attorney Kathleen Zellner.

The DOJ filing includes unfounded accusations challenging attorney Zellner's ethics, and a bizarre statement complaining about the fact that Avery spotlights more prosecutorial misconduct for allegedly withholding exculpatory evidence — a Brady violation.

The DOJ asserted that the sheer multiplicity of alleged Brady violations in the record should be read against the defense.

Avery's attorney, Zellner, reacted with restrained outrage.

Zellner replied to the Court on April 22: "It is a supreme irony that in one of the most blatant examples of a wrongful conviction the State's only response is to falsely accuse Mr. Avery's lead counsel of nefarious conduct for discovering a 6th Brady violation. Rather than seeking justice, the State wants to 'slay the messenger' by putting forth more false allegations, a skill that it has mastered over the last 16 years. The State turns a blind eye towards its past actions of withholding exculpatory evidence."

The Democratic-led DOJ said nothing about the substance of Sowinski's sworn statement, or that the prosecution apparently failed to notify the defense about this witness after he contacted the Manitowoc Sheriff's department in 2005.

Dems stand with police

What is happening in Wisconsin?

Why is the Democratic-led DOJ defending the work of Kenneth R. Kratz, former Calumet County District Attorney, (1992-2010), who was forced to resign in disgrace in 2010 for outrageous conduct in 2009, just two years after prosecuting the Avery-Dassey cases?

Kratz is self-described as suffering from narcissistic personality disorder, sexual compulsion disorder and multiple drug addictions.

Kratz described himself a "dick" for his work as district attorney in which he claimed he could not help himself harassing crime victims because of his disorders for which he was undergoing professional treatment, amid an allegation he possibly assaulted a woman.

Wisconsin Democratic Party officials, Gov. Tony Evers and Attorney General Joshua Kaul, have made the political decision to work for law enforcement, even Kratz, against the wrongfully convicted.

This is political liberalism at its most vicious and irrational.

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

The strategy keeps Avery in prison and delays a hearing in County Circuit court, a move necessary before state appellate courts can rule.

In Wisconsin, January-February weather is colder than July-August, and the Democratic Party loves and supports its cops. It's the way it is.

This political climate is why cops feel free to frame Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey. 

It's why cops like Rusten Sheskey feels free to attempt to kill Jacob Blake; and why cops killed and gunned down Paul Heenan, Ashley DiPiazza, and Tony Robinson in Madison.

It's why the racist Wisconsin State Sen. Tim Carpenter (D-Milwaukee) felt free to travel to Madison during the historic 2020 Black Lives Matter protests, pick a fight with protesters, fake a collapse, and then retaliate against marchers by pressing criminal charges against two women whom he knows to be innocent. Carpenter hates uppity women.

Carpenter told cops he was headed to the state Capitol around midnight on business before he encountered the Black Lives Matter protests.

Gov. Evers shoots down innocents

Gov. Evers joined Kaul in the delaying strategy with Brendan Dassey, convicted co-conspirator with Avery. Dassey petitioned for a commutation in 2019, after losing his Habeas petition 4-3 at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in a lambasted 2017 decision.

Dassey claims in his 2019 executive clemency petition that Wisconsin's criminal justice system perpetuated an injustice in which the state can have no "confidence."

Reads the petition:

In 2006, Brendan Dassey was a sixteen-year-old Mishicot High School special education student with no criminal history, an IQ of 74, and speech-language functioning in the bottom percentile. After undergoing four police interrogations in 48 hours, he found himself charged with involvement in one of the highest-profile homicides in Wisconsin history – and, subsequently, sentenced to life in prison – based on a videotaped confession about which state and federal judges, national police authorities, prosecutorial groups, and psychological experts have since expressed the gravest doubts.

A member of Dassey's 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."

Gov. Evers sent Dassey a form letter denying his petition in Dec 2019, stating in part that since Dassey did not wait five years after serving his life sentence, Evers would not consider the plea.

While Oregon and Illinois passed bans this year on lying to juveniles during police interrogations, with some state legislators citing Wisconsin resident Brendan Dassey's ordeal, Evers refuses to consider a pardon for Dassey that looks at the merits of his case.

Tony Evers retains the power to pardon Dassey with the stroke of a pen.

Problem is a pardon or commutation would blow into a political scandal implicating Democratic sheriffs, Kaul's mother, former Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager (2003-07) among other Democratic Party cops.

Dems and win-at-any costs cops

Democrat Kaul's DOJ team includes a who's who of dubious state DOJ attorneys — Mark Williams, Thomas J. Fallon, and Special Prosecutor Norman Gahn — all of whom have demonstrated misconduct in their work, either destroying evidence or lying about destroying evidence.

After years of Republican Party rule in Wisconsin, people around the world who believe it's immoral to imprison innocents had waited for how the new Democratic attorney general and governor would handle Dassey and Avery's battle for exoneration in 2019.

Next steps

Today, Avery is awaiting the appellate court decision whether to send his case to County Circuit court to hear the Thomas Sowinski statement and other evidence, and the resolution of pending motions.

At a time when our country is questioning law enforcement, Wisconsin Democratic leadership is working against the people . . . for the police.

"We are all implicated when we allow other people to be mistreated. An absence of compassion can corrupt the decency of a community, a state, a nation," writes Bryan Stevenson in Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption.

The quality of mercy towards the innocent appears to be exhausted under the warrant of Wisconsin Democrats.

[Michael Leon has written for The Progressive, In These Times, CounterPunch and others. Leon is covering the Making a Murderer cases, and has advocated for the release of Avery and his nephew, Brendan Dassey.]

Steven Avery Attorney: 'Huge Amount of New Evidence' Coming in Making a Murderer Case

Liberty Leading the People, by Eugene Delacroix (1830).

Liberty Rights of Innocent Falling in the Regressive State

Updated - MADISON, WIS — As public faith in the Wisconsin and federal criminal justice systems remains low, the attorney for the once-exonerated Steven Avery will file a new legal petition containing a "huge amount of new evidence," an announcement reads today.

Just in case any of you are wondering we are working as hard as ever on Steven Avery’s case. We will be filing a new petition with a huge amount of new evidence. We will never give up pounding on the doors of justice for him.

@MakingAMurderer #TruthWins

— Kathleen Zellner (@ZellnerLaw) January 11, 2022

The case is State of Wisconsin v Steven Avery, featured in the Emmy-winning Making a Murderer docuseries.

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

The coming Avery-Zellner filing follows a Nov 2021 defeat at the Wisconsin Supreme Court that refused to hear a petition, in accordance with the Wisconsin Judiciary's abdication of its role as guardians of civil liberties and defendant rights.

Most see the Avery-Dassey saga as revenge prosecutions in Manitowoc and Calumet counties, an insular region of the state known for small-town justice — injustice.

Steven Avery's real crime was to be exonerated for a 1985 wrongful conviction, and then file a federal civil rights action against Manitowoc County, known locally as "corruption county." 

The State of Wisconsin needed corroboration of allegations in its frame-up against Avery in 2003, so in a grotesque action in 2005-06, threw an innocent 16-year-old Dassey into legal fires, with no consideration given to the fact Brendan Dassey was demonstrably innocent.

Now, the Avery and Dassey cases have become partisan lightening rods as leading Wisconsin Democratic Party officeholders, including Gov. Tony Evers (D) and Attorney General Joshua Kaul (D), have worked to block evidentiary hearings the publicly challenge rampant law enforcement misconduct

In a legal spectacle in the Spring 2021, Thomas Sowinski of Manitowoc swore in a statement that he saw the prosecution's key trial witness plant the murder victim's RAV4 vehicle on the property of Steven Avery.

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.

Sowinski appears the stuff of movies — maybe, some mused, in response Wisconsin's new attorney general would seek to vacate two murder convictions, amid a vow to clean up law enforcement in east-central Wisconsin.

DOJ delay strategy

The Wisconsin Dept of Justice quickly responded on April 16 to the Sowinski statement.

The DOJ filing includes unfounded accusations challenging attorney Zellner's ethics, and a bizarre statement complaining about the fact that Avery spotlights more prosecutorial misconduct for allegedly withholding exculpatory evidence — a Brady violation.

This is the same tactic launched at Zellner by the State of Missouri in her successful exoneration of Ryan Ferguson.

The DOJ asserted that the sheer multiplicity of alleged Brady violations in the record should be read against the defense.

Avery's attorney, Zellner, reacted with restrained outrage.

Zellner replied to the Court on April 22, 2021: "It is a supreme irony that in one of the most blatant examples of a wrongful conviction the State's only response is to falsely accuse Mr. Avery's lead counsel of nefarious conduct for discovering a 6th Brady violation. Rather than seeking justice, the State wants to 'slay the messenger' by putting forth more false allegations, a skill that it has mastered over the last 16 years. The State turns a blind eye towards its past actions of withholding exculpatory evidence."

The Democratic-led DOJ said nothing about the substance of Sowinski's sworn statement, or that the prosecution apparently failed to notify the defense about this witness after he contacted the Manitowoc Sheriff's department in 2005.

The defamatory ethics violation accusation against Zellner was quickly disconfirmed by Zellner and the DOJ never mentioned the matter again, failing to apologize and straighten out the record.

Dems stand with police

Why is the Democratic-led DOJ defending the work of Kenneth R. Kratz, former Calumet County District Attorney, (1992-2010), who was forced to resign in disgrace in 2010 for outrageous conduct in 2009, just two years after prosecuting the Avery-Dassey cases?

Kratz is self-described as suffering from narcissistic personality disorder, sexual compulsion disorder and multiple drug addictions.

Kratz described himself a "dick" for his work as district attorney in which he claimed he could not help himself harassing crime victims because of his disorders for which he was undergoing professional treatment, amid an allegation he possibly assaulted a woman.

Wisconsin Democratic Party officials, Gov. Tony Evers and Attorney General Joshua Kaul, have made the political decision to work for law enforcement, even Ken Kratz, against the wrongfully convicted.

This is political liberalism at its most vicious and irrational.

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

The quality of mercy towards the innocent appears to be exhausted under the warrant of Wisconsin Democrats.
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Why are demonstrably innocent peoples' lives being destroyed in Wisconsin? 

Why do so many accept what the Wisconsin Judiciary and criminal justice system are doing?

It's an old story: See Milton Mayer's They Thought They Were Free: The Germans, 1933-45 (University of Chicago Press. ©1955).

Mayer, an American Jewish writer who had gone to Germany in the 1930s, made friends with 10 people, all of whom were members of the NAZI Party. He found them courteous, funny, genuine human beings whom he called "friends."

They were also fools and certainly were guilty.

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From Milton Mayer:

But Then It Was Too Late

"What no one seemed to notice," said a colleague of mine, a philologist, "was the ever widening gap, after 1933, between the government. ..."

"What happened here was the gradual habituation of the people, little by little, to being governed by surprise; to receiving decisions deliberated in secret; to believing that the situation was so complicated that the government had to act on information which the people could not understand, or so dangerous that, even if the people could not understand it, it could not be released because of national security."

This separation of government from people, this widening of the gap, took place so gradually and so insensibly, each step disguised (perhaps not even intentionally) as a temporary emergency measure or associated with true patriotic allegiance or with real social purposes. And all the crises and reforms (real reforms, too) so occupied the people that they did not see the slow motion underneath, of the whole process of government growing remoter and remoter."

"You will understand me when I say that my Middle High German was my life. It was all I cared about. I was a scholar, a specialist. Then, suddenly, I was plunged into all the new activity, as the university was drawn into the new situation; meetings, conferences, interviews, ceremonies, and, above all, papers to be filled out, reports, bibliographies, lists, questionnaires. And on top of that were the demands in the community, the things in which one had to, was ‘expected to’ participate that had not been there or had not been important before. It was all rigmarole, of course, but it consumed all one’s energies, coming on top of the work one really wanted to do. You can see how easy it was, then, not to think about fundamental things. One had no time." ...

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 Admits State Gave Murder Victim's Family 'Many Bones' — Confirming Assertions Made by Wrongfully Convicted Man's Attorney

Kathleen Zellner, depicted above in image, has shown
beyond serious dispute Wisconsin has framed, destroyed
exculpatory evidence, and secretly broken state laws, all
to convict and protect the convictions of two innocent
men. Though disgraced jurists like Ken Kratz, Josh Kaul,
and many others characters employed by the Wisconsin
Department of Justice do not know it, the truth has a way
of coming out even in Wisconsin. Image from
innocence supporter, JamesBond 007, UK.

Cover-up Continues, as Attorney General Still Opposes Hearing on Destruction of Evidence

Madison, Wisconsin — The state of Wisconsin admitted that law enforcement and prosecutors secretly gave the family of murder victim Teresa Halbach her bodily remains, a 2011 illegal scheme that the state variously claimed is either delivery of animal bones or human bones.

The 2005 murder of Teresa Halbach and the frame-up of wrongfully convicted Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey are featured in Making a Murderer.

"The State has confirmed with us that they did in fact give 'many bones' back to [Teresa Halbach's] TH’s family. They have no proof they gave notice to SA [Steven Avery] or his attorneys = violation state law [and] due process," writes Avery's post-conviction attorney, Kathleen Zellner.

FYI: The State has confirmed with us that they did in fact give “many bones” back to TH’s family. They have no proof they gave notice to SA or his attorneys =violation state law & due process. @RollingStone @BBCWorld @Newsweek #MakingAMurderer2

— Kathleen Zellner (@ZellnerLaw) February 19, 2019

The admission is significant because, as Zellner told Newsweek, "This admission proves these bone fragments were returned to the family and it is undisputed there was no notice given to Steven Avery or his attorneys and that violates Wisconsin law, ... When any of these bones were returned to the Halbach’s Wisconsin State law and due process were violated. The State has confirmed returning many of the bones to the Halbach’s so the court should grant our motion to stay and remand."

Yes, the appellate court should grant the motion.

But lawyers at the Wisconsin Department of Justice do not want to appear in Sheboygan County Court, the jurisdiction to which the case would be remanded or sent back, and explain in a public hearing why the state violated state law in giving likely exculpatory evidence to the family of a murder victim.

It's unclear why the DoJ attorneys are worried.

Sheboygan County Court Angela W. Sutkiewicz is a prosecutor's judge.

Sutkiewicz will flack and cover for the state of Wisconsin. Even if a video surfaced with law enforcement discussing ways of framing Steven Avery, Sutkiewicz would rule, 'nothing to see here,' and this is no new evidence.

Sutkiewicz substitutes her affinity for prosecutors in place of neutral adjudication. To be accused means you have no rights, to be convicted means law enforcement can do no wrong, in what passes for Sutkiewicz' legal mind in Wisconsin.

In 2017, Sutkiewicz rejected Steven Avery's request for a trial made through his post-conviction attorney, Kathleen Zellner.

Sutkiewicz issued her ruling and opinion without ordering and conducting an evidentiary hearing on Kathleen Zellner's 1,200-page post-conviction motion, replete with expert forensic testimony and analyses.

"The judge criticized the defense conclusions as 'speculative' and based on 'interim opinions' by experts," notes Heavy. com.

On June 14, 2018, Avery through Zellner filed a motion for judicial substitution of Sutkiewicz, (Fox-11, Digital). The state of course objected to the motion for a new judge, (Fox-11 News).
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Sutkiewicz' court is a first procedural step for what in most states would already be a conviction that would have been vacated or reversed.

It's likely Kathleen Zellner has gamed out the procedural map dozens of steps into the future.

It's just as likely, should Avery's conviction not be reversed or vacated, Avery's case will eventually appear before the Wisconsin Supreme Court, where the population will learn what a Brady motion violation is, and why the state's Brady violations should also result in vacating the wrongful conviction.

Zellner's explosive motion Jan 24, 2019 seeking a hearing because the Calumet County Sheriff's Office secretly transferred evidence, the remains of a murder victim, Teresa Halbach, to private custody in 2011, in violation of state statutes that govern preservation of physical evidence collected, subject to criminal investigations is being adjudicated. So, we wait.
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In other developments, Avery advocates report that numerous Twitter accounts —  advocating DNA testing and law enforcement abiding by state law —  have been mysteriously shut down in actions apparently traced to persons close to the disgraced ex-district attorney and sex offender, Ken Kratz.

Kratz prosecuted Avery and Brendan Dassey, pleading two contradictory accounts of the same murder, in violation of Wisconsin ethical rules for prosecutors.