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.

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

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.

Illinois Champions Brendan Dassey in Assuring Ban on Police Lying to Children to Obtain False Confessions

Wisconsin Gov Tony Evers Keeps the Innocent Dassey in Prison

Madison, Wisconsin — Illinois state legislators are so appalled at the police practice of lying to juveniles to trick children into uttering false confessions that the state is on the verge of passing a ban on deceptive police interrogation practices, (Daily Herald).

Reports Raymon Troncoso: "The Illinois House unanimously passed a bipartisan juvenile justice reform measure Saturday that outlaws the use of deceptive interrogation techniques on minors," (Daily Herald).

In fact, some legislators were incensed by the Brendan Dassey Wisconsin case that they say this grotesque injustice put their support for the ban over the top.

Reports Troncoso:

Rep Jim Durkin (R) said he was initially skeptical of the legislation but was moved toward supporting it after speaking to legal experts from the Innocence Project. According to Durkin, what finally put him over the edge to sponsor the bill was learning about the case of Brendan Dassey while watching the Netflix series 'Making a Murderer.'

'It was very clear to me that there was coercion and deception that was levied upon a 16-year-old Wisconsin resident, Brendan Dassey,' Durkin said. 'It became also very clear to me that this 16-year-old did not have the mental capacity to understand his Miranda rights, nor the capacity to waive these rights.'

Meanwhile, in Wisconsin Democratic and Republican law enforcement joined forces to use deception and lies to goad Dassey into uttering words presented as a confession in 2007.

And to widespread disappointment, Gov Tony Evers (D) denied Brendan Dassey' petition for a commutation and pardon in 2019.

Dassey was falsely convicted of murder in 2007 after being preyed upon by Wisconsin law enforcement in the persons of Mark Wiegert, (current Sheriff of the Calumet County Sheriff's Office), Tom Fassbender (Wisconsin DoJ, Division of Criminal Investigation investigator (Ret)), sex offender and disgraced prosecutor Ken Kratz and dozens of other collaborators in law enforcement.

So, Illinois is appalled by the Brendan Dassey injustice, but Wisconsin is not.

Not Wisconsin Attorney General Joshua Kaul (D), not Wisconsin Gov Tony Evers (D), not one Wisconsin Democratic Party elected official.

Today, we demand Gov Tony Evers (D) pardon the wrongfully convicted Brendan Dassey in the interest of justice.

Below is a repost of a piece from 2020.

Madison, Wisconsin — There is a special place in infamy for the bystander.

Brendan Dassey is in a Wisconsin prison; he is demonstrably innocent, but lives in a state with many perpetrators and more bystanders ensuring the wrongfully convicted remain behind bars.

So, Dassey works for his freedom, his life.

Dassey and Steven Avery are featured in the Emmy-winning documentary series, Making a Murderer.

The series resulted in a worldwide campaign of supporters who work for exoneration of two clearly innocent men.

No judge who has heard Dassey's case believes he is guilty.

No cop believes in Dassey's guilt, though no Wisconsin cop will state this publicly — ever.

Two Wisconsin cops worked in bad faith — Mark Wiegert (current Sheriff of the Calumet County Sheriff's Office), and Tom Fassbender (Wisconsin DoJ, DCI investigator (ret)) — and ripped into a 16-year-old with an I.Q. of 70, and a severe language impairment, ultimately leading to the false conviction for first-degree intentional homicide, mutilation of a corpse, and second-degree sexual assault in 2007.

The Flight of Moloch - by William Blake
Happy Mothers Day, as we remember
Barb Tadych for delivering her son to
Wisconsin law enforcement.

Dassey was easy prey for Wiegert and Fassbender.

The prosecutor, Ken Kratz, who called himself a "dick" in 2016 (for real), self-described as suffering from narcissistic personality disorder and multiple drug addictions, was driven from the district attorney's office in 2010 after multiple allegations of sexual harassment and sexual assault came to light, after which he was driven from the Wisconsin legal profession altogether in 2019.

In the Dassey injustice, defense of Ken Kratz binds Democrats and Republicans here: A commitment to defend wrongful convictions at the hands of unethical and dishonest law enforcement.

Kratz' wife mocked and taunted Dassey's alleged conspirator, Steven Avery, in Feb 2019 in a tweet, now removed:

Writes Kratz:

Hey guys, Stevie’s still sitting in a jail cell 🙌🏻👏🏻🙌🏻👏🏻 #MakingAMurderer #MakingAMurderer2 Keep dragin ass, Kathleen. We love it! 😁😁

— Leah Kratz (@LeahMarieKK) February 16, 2019

One can garner much about the police culture of Wisconsin from this one tweet from an unhinged hick.

Consider this shared objective of destroying innocent life, a depraved devotion that cries out for constant challenge.

Last year a member of Dassey's defense team, Seth Waxman, advocating for a pardon or commutation for Dassey from Gov Tony Evers on Oct 2, 2019 in Madison, said, "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."

No word came from Evers before or after Oct 2019. 

Then, came Evers rejection of Dassey's bid for a pardon in Dec 2019, the news hidden in a press release just before Christmas, though Evers did manage to land a shot at Dassey, knowing he would get the news while retaining expectations about the holidays.

Ken Kratz and his ilk in the Manitowoc and Calumet County sheriff offices, have a friend they may not have counted on: Wisconsin's new Attorney General Josh Kaul (D).

Josh Kaul's office through co-counsels Mark Williams, Thomas Fallon and others is carrying on the crusade against Steven Avery and Dassey with the same lack of ethics and regard for law that defined the tenure of Kaul's three predecessors in the Wisconsin Dept of Justice.

---

In the medical profession, practitioners are expected to carry out the spirit of an oath that demands doctors be healers, not destroyers.

Among police and prosecutors, there are no such strictures governing police conduct demanding no innocent be harmed or harassed, assaulted, defamed, arrested and imprisoned. In the Dassey and Avery cases, Wisconsin law enforcement destroyed evidence, then defended destroying evidence.

Among police, and its civilian collaborators, mission-critical imperatives are to protect police. The public is a free-fire zone and in warped police culture, the police cult perpetrates predictable brutality.

The type of individual, double-high authoritarian and anti-intellectual, who wants and self-selects to be a cop is capable of anything.

And all of law enforcement and politicians remain complicit in their silence.

Evers could help correct a grotesque injustice with a stroke of a pen today.

The decent who fight for Brendan Dassey's exoneration will never quit.

We are live in Manitowoc on the corner of Washington & 25th street, which poignantly is the same road as the courthouse where Brendan's life was snatched from him. Webcam footage doesn't do it "justice" - more photos to come #BringBrendanHome #FreeBrendanDassey pic.twitter.com/KMTyJx8Znq

— Tracy Keogh (@TracyKeogh2) December 7, 2020

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.

Emergency Clemency Petition Filed in Brendan Dassey Wrongful Conviction

Madison, Wisconsin — Brendan Dassey is an innocent man in prison, falsely convicted of murder in 2007 after being preyed upon by Wisconsin law enforcement in the persons of Mark Wiegert, (current Sheriff of the Calumet County Sheriff's Office), Tom Fassbender (Wisconsin DoJ, Division of Criminal Investigation investigator (Ret)), sex offender and disgraced prosecutor Ken Kratz and dozens of other collaborators in blue and black.

Law enforcement went after a child to help frame Steven Avery who filed a civil action against Manitowoc County in east-central Wisconsin for its first wrongful conviction of Avery for which he was exonerated, (LaVigne and Miles, Under the Hood: Brendan Dassey, Language Impairments, and Judicial Ignorance)

Not one Wisconsin cop has ever stood up and said, 'Wait a minute. This former kid didn't do anything. We as the state of Wisconsin are destroying the life of this innocent in plain sight, and we have sanctioned the police molesting a child, and we have forever traumatized Brendan Dassey. This has to stop — right now.' 

Stopping this sickening injustice right now is what Dassey's attorney, Laura Nirider, is calling for in an emergency application for clemency filed this week with Wisconsin Gov Tony Evers (D), and reported by CBS This Morning moments ago.

Reports CBS:

Dassey's legal options have been exhausted. But now, his attorney Laura Nirider is turning to Wisconsin's new Democratic governor, Tony Evers. "We're filing a petition for executive clemency with Governor Tony Evers of Wisconsin," Nirider told "CBS This Morning" co-host Anthony Mason.

In 2007, Dassey and his uncle Steven Avery were sentenced to life in prison for Halbach's murder. The burned remains of the 25-year-old photographer were found on the Avery family property, along with her key and car. Avery, whose blood was found in that car, has claimed he was framed.
 
At the time of Halbach's murder, Avery was suing Manitowoc County and its former sheriff. He'd been released from prison in 2003, after DNA evidence exonerated him of a rape charge for which he'd served 18 years.
 
Dassey's case became a sensation when Netflix released "Making a Murderer." Amid the murder investigation, Dassey, who is intellectually limited, was interviewed by police four times in 48 hours without a lawyer or parent present. The 16-year-old eventually confessed to helping his uncle rape and kill Halbach, but Nirider said Dassey was fed information by investigators.
 
Dassey quickly recanted his confession -- first, to his mother, while still in the interrogation room. "They got to my head," he told her.

In a podcast episode released Wednesday, Dassey spoke from prison with Jason Flom, host of the podcast "Wrongful Conviction." It's his first interview since going to prison.

Flom is a music executive who's behind the careers of starts like Katy Perry and Lorde. But as a member of the board of the Innocence Project, he also fights for criminal justice reform – and he told Mason that he's "absolutely certain" that Dassey is innocent.

"I just wanted it all over with, so I said whatever they wanted to hear, you know?" Dassey told Flom on the podcast.

"Most people grow up, as I did, with believing that the law enforcement are out to help us, right? They're the people you call when you need help. Did you have that same idea when you went in there?" Flom asked.
---
The silence from Wisconsin law enforcement is a shrieking injustice.

The silence from every elected local and state official in Wisconsin is worse.

Now, Tony Evers is thrust into the spot-light of truth. What will Evers do?

I don't believe in Tony Evers as a man, as an intellect, or a human being with a moral center.

But as the years and life-blood of Brendan Dassey slip away, we must try to help free the innocent; we must speak the truth in a state where police celebrate the destruction of innocent children. Note Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen (R) (2007-2015) announced on May 2, 2008, Wiegert and Fassbender, received the Meritorious Service Award from the Wisconsin Association of Homicide Investigators, for their work against Dassey.

Most people do grow up believing that law enforcement are out to help us.

In Wisconsin, this is a dangerous belief.

Call Tony Evers right now and demand justice for Brendan Dassey:

Madison Office: 608 266 1212
Milwaukee Office: 414 227 4344

Brendan Dassey co-counsel former Solicitor General of the United States Seth Waxman speaks to this profound injustice & how we all felt when first watching Brendan’s interrogation #bringbrendanhome pic.twitter.com/tnNNkAwMWS

— Tracy Keogh (@TracyKeogh2) October 2, 2019

@GovEvers , Time to grow up, face the world. The Dassey interrogation and prosecution are what happens when pols avert their eyes from molestation of innocent children. Are you so committed to sticking your head in the sand while the life-blood of a now 29-year-old drips away? https://t.co/d9xOSvvS51

— Michael Leon (@mal644) October 3, 2019

Brendan Dassey Awaits Freedom in Wisconsin as Gov Tony Evers Cowers

Billboard in Manitowoc Demands Pardon for
Wrongfully Convicted Brendan Dassey. Gov
Tony Evers (D) is vested with unlimited power
to grant clemency for any or no reason under
 Article V, Sec 6 of the Wisconsin Constitution.

Innocent Man in Prison — Everyone Knows, Afraid to Act

Madison, Wisconsin — There is a special place in infamy for the bystander.

Brendan Dassey is in a Wisconsin prison; he is demonstrably innocent, but lives in a state with many perpetrators and more bystanders ensuring the wrongfully convicted remain behind bars.

So, Dassey works for his freedom, his life.

Dassey and Steven Avery are featured in the Emmy-winning documentary series, Making a Murderer.

The series resulted in a worldwide campaign of supporters who work for exoneration of two clearly innocent men.

No judge who has heard Dassey's case believes he is guilty.

No cop believes in Dassey's guilt, though no Wisconsin cop will state this publicly — ever.

Two Wisconsin cops worked in bad faith — Mark Wiegert (current Sheriff of the Calumet County Sheriff's Office), and Tom Fassbender (Wisconsin DoJ, DCI investigator (ret)) — and ripped into a 16-year-old with an I.Q. of 70, and a severe language impairment, ultimately leading to the false conviction for first-degree intentional homicide, mutilation of a corpse, and second-degree sexual assault in 2007.

Dassey was easy prey for Wiegert and Fassbender.

The prosecutor, Ken Kratz, who called himself a "dick" in 2016 (for real), self-described as suffering from narcissistic personality disorder and multiple drug addictions, was driven from the district attorney's office in 2010 after multiple allegations of sexual harassment and sexual assault came to light, after which he was driven from the Wisconsin legal profession altogether in 2019.

In the Dassey injustice, defense of Ken Kratz binds Democrats and Republicans here: A commitment to defend wrongful convictions at the hands of unethical and dishonest law enforcement.

Kratz' wife mocked and taunted Dassey's alleged conspirator, Steven Avery, in Feb 2019 in a tweet, now removed:

Writes Kratz:

Hey guys, Stevie’s still sitting in a jail cell 🙌🏻👏🏻🙌🏻👏🏻 #MakingAMurderer #MakingAMurderer2 Keep dragin ass, Kathleen. We love it! 😁😁

— Leah Kratz (@LeahMarieKK) February 16, 2019

One can garner much about the police culture of Wisconsin from this one tweet from an unhinged hick.

Consider this shared objective of destroying innocent life, a depraved devotion that cries out for constant challenge.

Last year a member of Dassey's defense team, Seth Waxman, advocating for a pardon or commutation for Dassey from Gov Tony Evers on Oct 2, 2019 in Madison, said, "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."

No word came from Evers before or after Oct 2019. 

Then, came Evers rejection of Dassey's bid for a pardon in Dec 2019, the news hidden in a press release just before Christmas, though Evers did manage to land a shot at Dassey, knowing he would get the news while retaining expectations about the holidays.

Ken Kratz and his ilk in the Manitowoc and Calumet County sheriff offices, have a friend they may not have counted on: Wisconsin's new Attorney General Josh Kaul (D).

Josh Kaul's office through co-counsels Mark Williams, Thomas Fallon and others is carrying on the crusade against Avery and Dassey with the same lack of ethics and regard for law that defined the tenure of Kaul's three predecessors in the Wisconsin Dept of Justice.

---

In the medical profession, practitioners are expected to carry out the spirit of an oath that demands doctors be healers, not destroyers.

Among police and prosecutors, there are no such strictures governing police conduct demanding no innocent be harmed or harassed, assaulted, defamed, arrested and imprisoned. In the Dassey and Avery cases, Wisconsin law enforcement destroyed evidence, then defended destroying evidence.

Among police, and its civilian collaborators, mission-critical imperatives are to protect police. The public is a free-fire zone and in warped police culture, the police cult perpetrates predictable brutality.

The type of individual, double-high authoritarian and anti-intellectual, who wants and self-selects to be a cop is capable of anything.

And all of law enforcement and politicians remain complicit in their silence.

Evers could help correct a grotesque injustice with a stroke of a pen today.

The decent who fight for Brendan Dassey's exoneration will never quit.

We are live in Manitowoc on the corner of Washington & 25th street, which poignantly is the same road as the courthouse where Brendan's life was snatched from him. Webcam footage doesn't do it "justice" - more photos to come #BringBrendanHome #FreeBrendanDassey pic.twitter.com/KMTyJx8Znq

— Tracy Keogh (@TracyKeogh2) December 7, 2020

Wisconsin Gov Evers Hides from Truth on Brendan Dassey Clemency — Rejection in Unsigned Form Letter

Corrupt Wisconsin police targeted the innocent to tragic
consequence. Image - Kathe Kollwitz, (1867-1945). Kollwitz
is a major anti-fascist artist who lived in Germany, and
never recovered from the death of her son in WW I.

Dassey Pardon Petition Remains before Tony Evers

Madison, Wisconsin — News that Gov Tony Evers' (D) Pardon Board declined to review the Brendan Dassey pardon and commutation petition does not surprise, (AP).

This is a political decision, defending the wrongful conviction of an innocent Wisconsin man, convicted as a child, and preyed upon by the tree jumpers populating Wisconsin law enforcement, (see Under the Hood: Brendan Dassey, Language Impairments, and Judicial Ignorance, (full paper) LaVigne and Miles).

The advisory Board's decision was released in a form letter on the Friday before Christmas, the time to conceal the bad work of Wisconsin politicians.

No elected politician has ever publicly taken the side of the exonerated and the wrongfully convicted in Wisconsin. Not once.

Consider that, in Wisconsin of all places and to be clear the worst place to be black, standing up and speaking the truth is an exercise so dreaded by the denizens of public office, that they would rather see innocent lives destroyed than to advocate for their liberty.

Neither has any daily newspaper advocated for the freedom of the innocent.

Seth Waxman — a member of Brendan Dassey's legal team — said this year 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.

Put yourself in the place of Tony Evers, what would you do? Defend the innocent and call out the guilty, or hide?

From the Wrongful Conviction Podcast and Jason Flom:

Dassey Team Response to Pardon Board Clemency Denial

On behalf of Brendan’s lawyers, Laura Nirider and Steven Drizin, we share the following statement:

Today, only five days before Christmas, the Wisconsin Pardon Advisory Board chose to reject Brendan Dassey’s clemency petition in an unsigned form letter, without reviewing the petition on the merits.

Had the Board reviewed Brendan’s petition on the merits, it would have seen what more than 250 national experts -- and millions of ordinary people around the globe – see: a terrible miscarriage of justice.

Now 30 years old, Brendan Dassey has been imprisoned for thirteen years based only on a false confession that is inconsistent with the known facts of the case, has been disproven by DNA and forensic evidence, and was immediately recanted. That false confession was the result of a deeply flawed interrogation of a 16-year-old special education student with profound learning disabilities.

Although the Pardon Advisory Board has stated that it will not consider commutations, Governor Evers is not bound by those rules.  He does have the power to issue commutations under the Wisconsin Constitution and should do so when, as here, courts fail to deliver justice.  Our partners around the country stand ready to work with the Governor to develop an appropriate process for the review of commutation petitions.

In the meantime, we will continue to work, respectfully but relentlessly, towards the day when this Governor recognizes in Brendan Dassey the gentle, cheerful, and kind human being whom we have known for twelve years.  A good teacher never forgets his most vulnerable students; a good Governor never forgets his most vulnerable citizens.

We spoke to Brendan this morning. While the Board’s choice today has caused pain to many around the globe, Brendan wishes to express his profound gratitude – and his Christmas wishes -- to his many supporters.  He is not giving up hope, and neither are we.

Now more than ever, we need your help.  If you’d like to support our continuing effort to free Brendan, please consider doing the following two things:

(1)Re-sign the petition to Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers at bringbrendanhome.org and add your request that he “review the petition on the merits.”

(2)Send Brendan a letter of support and hope.  Your words of encouragement mean more to him than anything else.  You can address the letter to Brendan Dassey, #516985, Oshkosh Correctional Institution, PO Box 3310, Oshkosh, WI 54903-3310, U.S.A.

Thank you for standing with us.

Happy holidays and keep on fighting.

Signed,

The team at Wrongful Conviction

World's Worst Mother, Barb Tadych, Fed Innocent Son to Police Tree Jumpers

Billboard in Manitowoc Demands Pardon for
Wrongfully Convicted Brendan Dassey. Gov
Tony Evers (D) is vested with unlimited power
to grant clemency for any or no reason under
 Article V, Sec 6 of the Wisconsin Constitution.

Innocent Man in Prison — Everyone Knows

Update Sept 2, 2021: Supporters of Brad Dassey, step son of the infamous Barb Tadych, in Manitowoc County say the world's worse mother still wants her step-son incarcerated for criticizing her alleged abuse.
Corruption County, Manitowoc County, is reportedly offering a fine against Dassey for writing the truth about his step-mother.
The deranged mother who offers her children to Manitowoc County police to be incarcerated wants step-son, Brad, in prison because he defeated Tadych in a civil suit on First Amendment grounds.
Tadych says an unenforceable retraining order, now vacated, may have been violated. The Manitowoc County District Attorney's office is rightwing and out-of-control and is helping Tadych, who looks to the office to help incarcerate her step-son.
The next plea hearing is scheduled for October 15, 2021 at 11:30 am.

--

Happy Mothers Day 2021

The innocent Brendan Dassey doesn't have a good mother.

One Barb Tadych, in fact, is one of the world's worst mothers.
 
No matter, today, we demand Gov Tony Evers (D) pardon the wrongfully convicted Brendan Dassey in the interest of justice.

Below is a repost of a piece from 2020.

Madison, Wisconsin — There is a special place in infamy for the bystander.

Brendan Dassey is in a Wisconsin prison; he is demonstrably innocent, but lives in a state with many perpetrators and more bystanders ensuring the wrongfully convicted remain behind bars.

So, Dassey works for his freedom, his life.

Dassey and Steven Avery are featured in the Emmy-winning documentary series, Making a Murderer.

The series resulted in a worldwide campaign of supporters who work for exoneration of two clearly innocent men.

No judge who has heard Dassey's case believes he is guilty.

No cop believes in Dassey's guilt, though no Wisconsin cop will state this publicly — ever.

Two Wisconsin cops worked in bad faith — Mark Wiegert (current Sheriff of the Calumet County Sheriff's Office), and Tom Fassbender (Wisconsin DoJ, DCI investigator (ret)) — and ripped into a 16-year-old with an I.Q. of 70, and a severe language impairment, ultimately leading to the false conviction for first-degree intentional homicide, mutilation of a corpse, and second-degree sexual assault in 2007.

The Flight of Moloch - by William Blake
Happy Mothers Day, as we remember
Barb Tadych for delivering her son to
Wisconsin law enforcement.

Dassey was easy prey for Wiegert and Fassbender.

The prosecutor, Ken Kratz, who called himself a "dick" in 2016 (for real), self-described as suffering from narcissistic personality disorder and multiple drug addictions, was driven from the district attorney's office in 2010 after multiple allegations of sexual harassment and sexual assault came to light, after which he was driven from the Wisconsin legal profession altogether in 2019.

In the Dassey injustice, defense of Ken Kratz binds Democrats and Republicans here: A commitment to defend wrongful convictions at the hands of unethical and dishonest law enforcement.

Kratz' wife mocked and taunted Dassey's alleged conspirator, Steven Avery, in Feb 2019 in a tweet, now removed:

Writes Kratz:

Hey guys, Stevie’s still sitting in a jail cell 🙌🏻👏🏻🙌🏻👏🏻 #MakingAMurderer #MakingAMurderer2 Keep dragin ass, Kathleen. We love it! 😁😁

— Leah Kratz (@LeahMarieKK) February 16, 2019

One can garner much about the police culture of Wisconsin from this one tweet from an unhinged hick.

Consider this shared objective of destroying innocent life, a depraved devotion that cries out for constant challenge.

Last year a member of Dassey's defense team, Seth Waxman, advocating for a pardon or commutation for Dassey from Gov Tony Evers on Oct 2, 2019 in Madison, said, "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."

No word came from Evers before or after Oct 2019. 

Then, came Evers rejection of Dassey's bid for a pardon in Dec 2019, the news hidden in a press release just before Christmas, though Evers did manage to land a shot at Dassey, knowing he would get the news while retaining expectations about the holidays.

Ken Kratz and his ilk in the Manitowoc and Calumet County sheriff offices, have a friend they may not have counted on: Wisconsin's new Attorney General Josh Kaul (D).

Josh Kaul's office through co-counsels Mark Williams, Thomas Fallon and others is carrying on the crusade against Avery and Dassey with the same lack of ethics and regard for law that defined the tenure of Kaul's three predecessors in the Wisconsin Dept of Justice.

---

In the medical profession, practitioners are expected to carry out the spirit of an oath that demands doctors be healers, not destroyers.

Among police and prosecutors, there are no such strictures governing police conduct demanding no innocent be harmed or harassed, assaulted, defamed, arrested and imprisoned. In the Dassey and Avery cases, Wisconsin law enforcement destroyed evidence, then defended destroying evidence.

Among police, and its civilian collaborators, mission-critical imperatives are to protect police. The public is a free-fire zone and in warped police culture, the police cult perpetrates predictable brutality.

The type of individual, double-high authoritarian and anti-intellectual, who wants and self-selects to be a cop is capable of anything.

And all of law enforcement and politicians remain complicit in their silence.

Evers could help correct a grotesque injustice with a stroke of a pen today.

The decent who fight for Brendan Dassey's exoneration will never quit.

We are live in Manitowoc on the corner of Washington & 25th street, which poignantly is the same road as the courthouse where Brendan's life was snatched from him. Webcam footage doesn't do it "justice" - more photos to come #BringBrendanHome #FreeBrendanDassey pic.twitter.com/KMTyJx8Znq

— Tracy Keogh (@TracyKeogh2) December 7, 2020