Corruption County — Manitowoc, Wisconsin Strikes Again; Targets Critic to Protect Old Wrongful Convictions

Manitowoc County Sheriff Uses Office to Silence Critic of Wrongful Convictions

Update III 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.

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Update II: World's worst mother, Barb Tadych, who fed her innocent son, Brendan Dassey, alone in a room with two police tree jumpers resulting in a life sentence, now wants her step-son, Brad Dassey, in prison too. June 17, a judge will decide whether to imprison another innocent Dassey on unfounded criminal charges heard by the Manitowoc County judiciary, known for corruption and stupidity.

 Update: Analysis of the Manitowoc County District Attorney's ridiculous Summons, relying on the even more ridiculous reports of the Sheriff's Office and Barb Tadych reasons that since the TRO and petition for restraining order were denied May 3, the TRO is not enforceable on its face. Brad Dassey will prevail again, but the take-away is Barb Tadych, the DA and the Sheriff all worked together to get Brad arrested, convicted and imprisoned. Sound familiar?

Madison, Wisconsin — Manitowoc, Wisconsin is Corruption County USA.

For readers wondering whatever happened to the most corrupt county in America — Manitowoc County, Wisconsin — cops there are searching for new victims, and protecting wrongful convictions through the corrupt conduct of their office of public trust, under color of law.

One of the world's worst mothers, Barb Tadych, Brendan Dassey's mother, is featured in the Emmy-winning documentary, Making a Murderer.

Barb Tadych's Choice

Tadych is a major figure in the grotesque frame-up scheme against Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey.

In 2005, Tadych fed her 16-year-old son, Brendan, who has a severe language impairment and 70 IQ, to corrupt Wisconsin law enforcement [Tom Fassbender (Wisconsin Division of Criminal Investigation investigator (Ret)) and Mark Wiegert, (current Sheriff of the Calumet County Sheriff's Office), who interrogated Brendan alone in a room], the better to elicit words that the cops could falsely state constituted a confession to murder of Teresa Halbach.

Law enforcement then used Brendan's so-called confession to convict the innocent Steven Avery.

Tadych publicly protested Brendan's innocence, but Tadych also remains under suspicion for her defense of Bobby Dassey, Brendan's brother, who implicated the once-exonerated Steven Avery as the State's star witness, (Ferak, Appleton Post-Crescent). 

Bobby Dassey is now a key suspect for the 2005 murder of Ms. Halbach, (for which Brendan and Avery were convicted in 2007), and a witness came forward last month attesting he saw Bobby Dassey planting Halbach's Rav-4 on Avery's property.

In April 2021, faced with compelling evidence Bobby Dassey may have been responsible for killing Ms. Halbach, and was responsible, in part, for framing Steven Avery, [a legal argument that "directly connects Bobby to the crime charged [against Avery Brendan Dassey]," (Avery Motion for Remand and Stay of Appeal, April 12, 2021, p. 5), Barb Tadych's response was not to condemn the odious Manitowoc County Sheriff Dept and other law enforcement for its actions after this spectacular new development.

Instead, Barb Tadych reached out and colluded with the very Manitowoc County Sheriff Dept that has terrorized innocent people for decades. This time their target is Brad Dassey, half-brother of Brendan and Bobby. Tadych had already thrown one son to the wolves, so, she apparently reasoned, why not another?

Barb Tadych and the Manitowoc County Sheriff Dept remain close, even after Tadych's move to sacrifice Brendan caused Tadych to criticize the cops, in regret.

First, Tadych sought and obtained a Temporary Restraining Order, [Manitowoc County Case Number 2021CV000155, Barbara Tadych vs. Brad Anthony Dassey; April 19, 2021] against step-son Brad Dassey (for his criticism on social media of Tadych as an abusive parent and a possible destroyer of evidence implicating Bobby), days after the April 12, 2021 development of a new witness coming forward and attesting that the witness saw Bobby Dassey planting critical evidence on Steven Avery's property, (Patch. com).

After Tadych's ridiculous petition of a harassment injunction against Brad Dassey was dismissed on May 3, the Manitowoc County District Attorney mailed a criminal summons also dated May 3 to Brad Dassey, citing a polemical and sketchy Manitowoc County Sheriff Dept report alleging Brad Dassey violated the Temporary Restraining Order, though ultimately the TRO and Barb Tadych's harassment petition were denied on May 3.

Corruption County wants Brad Dassey for his criticism of the Sheriff and Barb Tadych, and it will not stop.

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

Brad Dassey has set up a legal defense fund. Readers are invited to contribute.

Phone calls to the Manitowoc County District Attorney's office this morning were not successful.

The cause of justice is not the cause of the Wisconsin Dept of Justice and other corrupt Wisconsin law enforcement.

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.

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.

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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

Making a Murderer — Avery Attorney Names Apparent Murder Suspect; New Eyewitness Comes Forward, Ids Planting of Victim's RAV-4

Avery Motion Directly Implicates Manitowoc County Sheriff’s Office, Bobby Dassey and an Older Unidentified Man in Spectacular Development

Updated - The exonerated Steven Avery was made internationally famous in the Emmy-winning documentary, Making a Murderer, for his exoneration, and subsequent apparent frame-up by crooked Wisconsin law enforcement, resulting in his 2007 conviction for the murder of Teresa Halbach in Manitowoc, Wisconsin.

Today, Steven Avery's attorney, Kathleen Zellner, named Bobby Dassey and "an unidentified older male" as the individuals who planted Ms. Halbach's dark-blue RAV-4 auto in the Avery auto salvage yard, citing a witness who came forward April 11, 2021.

Writes Ms Zellner on Twitter:

The Avery motion is posted on our website https://t.co/RqvrUtwgJt. @MakingAMurderer @TruthWins

— Kathleen Zellner (@ZellnerLaw) April 12, 2021

Post-conviction litigation is being pursued by Avery's attorneys, Kathleen T. Zellner and Steven G. Richards, in the Wisconsin court system (State of Wisconsin v. Steven A. Avery, Appeal Number 2017AP002288). The case was awaiting decision in state appellate court (Work with KZ).

This morning on April 12, preceding the announcement, Zellner filed a motion in state appellate court asking for a remand [to County Circuit Court] and a stay of the appeal.

The motion to remand the case is a spectacular development that chronicles two people moving a murder victim's car onto the Steven Avery property after an eye witness, Thomas Sowinski, a motor-route driver for Gannett Newspapers, Inc. came forward on April 11, 2021 (pp 1.2).

After Sowinski witnessed the planting of Ms Halbach's RAV-4, he called the Manitowoc County Sheriff’s Office and was told by a female employee that the Office "already knew who did it," the motion's affidavit reads.

Sowinski said in his affidavit, that not only did he witness Bobby Dassey "suspiciously pushing" the victim's vehicle down Avery Road, but that Bobby attempted to block Sowinski from leaving the property. The second older man ducked down below an open passenger door upon encountering Sowinski.

Sowinski said, "I know that Bobby Dassey and the older individual were doing something creepy." (Affidavit).

As Mr Sowinski's call was not communicated to the Avery defense, the omission by disgraced ex-District Attorney Ken Kratz is a glaring Brady violation.

Zellner told Patch. com (Ferek): "This is an evidence bombshell in the Avery case. We consider it the most significant witness evidence ever in the case, and it's an objective, non-biased witness who notified police in 2005 and he was ignored."

I think Steven Avery never would have been convicted had this evidence been known during his trial, and it destroys Bobby Dassey's credibility and links him to the crime."

The community behind Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey expects a complete exoneration and a criminal probe of Calumet County and Manitowoc County law enforcement, and top officials in the Wisconsin Dept of Justice.

Tips are now coming in to attorney Zellner on the identity of the second person.

Tips are coming in re the identity of the second person—long beard, 6 feet, big frame. ⁦@MakingAMurderer⁩ https://t.co/b9xVKIWMEF

— Kathleen Zellner (@ZellnerLaw) April 12, 2021

The Wisconsin Dept of Justice, let by Attorney General Joshua Kaul, appears to be shielding the rampant corruption and criminality of law enforcement in east-central Wisconsin.

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).

Kratz prosecuted both the Avery and Dassey cases before resigning in disgrace in 2010 after sexual assault and harassment allegations against him came to light and Gov Jim Doyle began removal proceedings.

Gov Doyle (2003-11) and Kaul's mother, former Wisconsin Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager (2003-2007) were bitter political enemies.

The Wisconsin Dept of Justice for now is keeping with its strategy on post-conviction litigation by pleading procedural arguments as evidence of law enforcement misconduct mounts.

May God forgive you BD. Hopefully, TH will see justice & the innocent will be free 🙏

— Terri mado* (@cartersnanny) April 12, 2021

Zellner Drops 'Biggest Evidence Bombshell In Steven Avery's Case' https://t.co/NbU1Rpshrf @TManitowoc @ZellnerLaw @JButing @Newsweek

— John Ferak (@johnferak) April 12, 2021

And whoever that female officer was needs to not only be fired but also be charged for withholding that vital information.
Absolutely disgusting and shameful police work!

— Curves&Swerves (@Mounty09) April 12, 2021

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New development:
The state never disclosed this witness to Steven Avery’s trial lawyers. If credible, unquestionably this witness would have destroyed state’s case against Avery & Brendan Dassey.@ZellnerLaw @johnferak #MakingaMurderer #FreeStevenAvery https://t.co/d44kbZ0APO

— Jerome Buting (@JButing) April 12, 2021

After reading Kathleen's Motion today expect Steven Avery to be walking down Avery Road as a free man very soon. @ZellnerLaw #MakingAMurderer2 #MakingAMurderer @TManitowoc #TruthWins @JButing @SandyGreenman @hoddinottm #NeverGiveUp @Rookie1082 @lifeafterten @Newsweek pic.twitter.com/HmfCvVJU8L

— Eye Of The Tiger (@Stayin_Hungry) April 12, 2021

The good thing to think about is that a 6' older guy with a long white beard that associated with Bobby Dassey in 2005 shouldn't be that hard to pin down and identify. To be moving the vehicle of a woman who was murdered, it would HAVE to be someone Bobby trusted to remain quiet. pic.twitter.com/QphXWYnIUn

— TickTockManitowoc (@TManitowoc) April 12, 2021

Wisconsin Wrongful Conviction Case Is Beyond Absurd; Ralliers Call for Evidence Examination and Trial

Drawing: Kathe Kollwitz, (1867-1945). Kollwitz is a major
anti-fascist artist who lived in Germany, and never recovered
from the death of her young son killed in World War I.

Madison, Wisconsin — Wisconsin law enforcement's framing of Steven Avery, and the ludicrous false confession imposed upon the cognitively challenged juvenile Brendan Dassey suffering from a language disorder is the work of humans — Mark Wiegert, (now sheriff of the Calumet County Sheriff's Office), and Tom Fassbender (Wisconsin Division of Criminal Investigation investigator (ret)).

Both Avery and Dassey were framed, unjustly charged, unjustly prosecuted and unjustly convicted of murder in two different trials where two mutually exclusive tales of the murder were presented to the juries. [See WorkwithKZ for updated legal filings.]

God is not responsible. There was no rule of law. This injustice is the unlawful work of corrupt cops with a frightening capacity to prey on children. Read Michele LaVigne and Sally U. Miles' paper, Under the Hood: Brendan Dassey, Language Impairments, and Judicial Ignorance, and consider how Wiegert, Fassbender, and in a different capacity, one Judge David F. Hamilton of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, can live with themselves.
 
Law enforcement is carried out by individuals for whom empirical rigor, rules of logic, social justice, civil liberties, human rights and intellectual honesty are seen as either barriers to overcome or academic pursuits irrelevant to their jobs.

Perverse will without the rule of law guided events leading to Avery and Dassey's conviction, and now the quest for freedom and exoneration.

The men and women of the Manitowoc County Sheriff Office, the Calumet County Sheriff Office, district attorneys, corrupt judges worked to convict innocent men, with no public dissent from cops.

The Wisconsin Dept of Justice led by Attorney General Joshua Kaul (D) has enlisted the help of corrupt prosecutors Mark Williams, Asst Attorney General and Special Prosecutor Thomas J. Fallon and Special Prosecutor Norman Gahn to keep Avery in prison, and to protect Wisconsin law enforcement.

"Despotism is a plan alone, without law and without rule, leading all its will and caprices," wrote  Montesquieu. Montesquieu's characterization of tyranny presages sex offender and prosecuting trial attorney Ken Kratz, Kratz' legal champion Joshua Kaul, Williams, Fallon and Gahn.

This weekend advocates for Dassey and Avery vowed to see Avery and Dassey exonerated. Only a fool would underestimate their determination.

From Kathleen Zellner, Avery's post-conviction attorney:

Steven's loyal supporters will never give up. We HEAR you and it gives us the strength and courage to fight on. #TruthWins #Makingamurderer #Onward pic.twitter.com/sCCoXyQKC0

— Kathleen Zellner (@ZellnerLaw) June 16, 2019

The Avery and Dassey injustices would not occur everywhere in Wisconsin. Not in Dane County today, for example. [Note in 1994-95, some of the major elements and dynamics in police misconduct were used to arrest, charge and convict an innocent woman, Penny Brummer, in Dane County though in Ms. Brummer's case she drew the attention of law enforcement because she is an out lesbian, hence suspicious in the minds of late 20th century law enforcement. Brummer remains in prison.]

But it remains convenient, good for a career in law enforcement, to frame innocent people in many jurisdictions in Wisconsin.

Writes John Ferak in the book, Wrecking Crew, Demolishing The Case Against Steven Avery (Wild Blue Press):

Being a sheriff's deputy in a small town means something. It means clout. It makes you somebody. You are given enormous power to mess with somebody's civil rights and freedoms. Want to harass somebody? Want to make somebody's life miserable? Want to intimidate someone? Want to rough someone up? Most cops who operate on the dark side of the law know what they can get away with. (Page 75. Chapter Nine, Shady Department)

Stay tuned. Steven Avery, Brendan Dassey, attorney Kathleen Zellner and millions of supporters worldwide are not going anywhere.

See WorkwithKZ for updated legal filings.

Tree Jumpers, Wisconsin Law Enforcement and the Grotesque Injustice Inflicted onto Brendan Dassey

Madison, Wisconsin — There is for the worst of human beings a curse reserved for a category of human garbage — the tree jumper.

A tree jumper is a child molester; a soulless creature who preys upon the innocent for his gratification and repulsive purposes.

In Wisconsin, tree jumpers wear military black-and-blue, and they work in law enforcement. I have lived in Wisconsin all my life, and I do not believe the political culture is capable of accessing and absorbing this fact.

But meet Mark Wiegert, (current Sheriff of the Calumet County Sheriff's Office), and Tom Fassbender (Wisconsin Division of Criminal Investigation investigator (Ret)).

They preyed upon an innocent, cognitively challenged 16-year-old with the purpose of inducing an innocent child into muttering words disingenuously portrayed as a confession.

For their work, Wiegert and Fassbender received the Meritorious Service Award from the Wisconsin Association of Homicide Investigators on May 2, 2008.

Tree jumpers often seek out each others' company and celebrate each others' work, as FBI profiler John Douglas and Mark Olshaker reveal in their Journey Into Darkness, (Gallery Books; (May 1, 2010).

This is Wisconsin law enforcement, and no cop speaks out against the false confessions, wrongful convictions, police frame-ups, harassment and character assassination that follow police dehumanization and objectification. Wiegert and Fassbender's careers in law enforcement were enhanced since the tree jumpers' despicable work used to help frame another innocent man, Steven Avery.

What Wiegert and Fassbender did to Brendan Dassey, featured in the Emmy-winning Making a Murderer, appears too vile a truth to stain the editorial pages of your local paper and TV station in Wisconsin.
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Not so for scholars Michele LaVigne and Sally U. Miles

In their paper, Under the Hood: Brendan Dassey, Language Impairments, and Judicial Ignorance, (full paper) LaVigne and Miles present work explaining the implausibility of the police lies that inflicted a "grotesque injustice done to Brendan Dassey."

Judge David F. Hamilton of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit should read their findings. This man's deciding vote to overturn Habeas relief for Dassey condemned an innocent child to prison for life, put there by tree jumpers — Mark Wiegert and Tom Fassbender.

"[O]ur job as a federal court reviewing a state conviction under § 2254(d) [application for a writ of habeas corpus] is not to consult scholarly literature in search of new best practices," intoned Hamilton in his dismissive opinion that overturned a federal district court and a three-judge ruling granting habeas relief to Brendan Dassey, (p.111, Dassey v. Dittman), ( Making a Murderer, Part Two;  (Episode 8; 24 minutes, 45 seconds).

Best practices? Scholarly findings explain how and why innocent children, and in Dassey's case a child with severe communication and language impairment, do not stand a chance against tree jumpers.

Below is the Abstract to LaVigne and Miles' paper (full paper) revealing what sick police and obtuse judges can inflict onto children.

Perhaps the esteemed Judge David F. Hamilton can edify himself.

Abstract

Making a Murderer, the Netflix documentary sensation, introduced the world to two unlikely protagonists, Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey of Manitowoc, Wisconsin. Both were convicted of a 2005 homicide and received life sentences. Avery was the main focus of the series, but it was Brendan, a developmentally-delayed sixteen-year-old, who won the heart and outrage of viewers.

The primary piece of evidence against Brendan was a “confession” cruelly extracted by law enforcement. The voluntariness of that confession was litigated in state and federal courts for over a dozen years. Tragically, most of the courts, including the final Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals en banc majority, were completely oblivious to fact that Brendan’s had the kind of severe communication and language impairment which would have left him helpless against the out-of-control interviewing style used by law enforcement. This article examines what the courts overlooked.

In order to fully assess the interviews and their impact, the co-authors had to do an under the hood analysis of Brendan’s language and communication skills as well as the communication of law enforcement. The co-authors, a clinical law professor and a speech language pathologist, suspected that Brendan suffered from a language impairment (disabling deficiencies in oral language competency), and we were right. The court file contained school records and assessments that placed Brendan’s language and communication skills in the lowest percentile of all sixteen-year-olds. This impairment had a profound impact on all aspects of Brendan’s functioning.

The other part of the equation was more complicated, but equally revealing. With the assistance of a language transcription company we closely analyzed law enforcement communication, and how that communication would affect someone like Brendan. The results were alarming. Almost everything the two officers did in the course of interrogating Brendan violated the most minimal standards for interviewing any juvenile, but especially one with underdeveloped language and communication skills. By the time we finished our review, we were confident that the verbal behavior of law enforcement throughout the interrogations of Brendan, coupled with his poor ability to linguistically cope and his age, made him a prime candidate for unwillingly—and unwittingly—confessing to a crime he did not commit.

This article describes our findings. It shows how law enforcement essentially abused Brendan with a chaotic mess of verbiage. And how, up against such a relentless verbal torrent, Brendan never stood a chance. The article also analyzes the myriad ways that the courts were simply wrong in their assumptions about Brendan, communication, and human behavior.

On a larger scale, we believe that this article, and the process that created it, can provide a prototype for future cases. Brendan Dassey’s impairment is not unique, and within the criminal justice system, it is not even unusual. Nor, unfortunately, are egregious police interviewing “techniques.” The use of speech-language expertise and discourse analysis could be useful to prevent the kind of grotesque injustice done to Brendan Dassey.
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JEL Classification: K14

Suggested Citation:

LaVigne, Michele and Miles, Sally, Under the Hood: Brendan Dassey, Language Impairments, and Judicial Ignorance (April 29, 2019). 82 Alb.L.Rev. ____ (2019) (in annual Miscarriages of Justice issue, Forthcoming); Univ. of Wisconsin Legal Studies Research Paper No. 1473. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3379727 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3379727

Gov Tony Evers on Defensive in Dassey Pardon-Commutation Petition

:We write this letter to express our sincere hope that you
will extend executive clemency, in the form of either a
pardon or a commutation, to Brendan Dassey."

Each person who signed this letter brings a different
perspective. Some of us are lawyers who practice
variously in the state and federal courts, including in trial
courts, appellate courts, and the United States Supreme Court.
Some of us are psychologists, including leading experts in
the psychology of interrogations and confessions.
Some of us are experts on juvenile justice;
some of us are disability experts. Some of us are academics
who study miscarriages of justice in Wisconsin and abroad.
Some of us are exonerees who have ourselves been convicted
of crimes we did not commit and who were later cleared
by DNA evidence. Still others simply wish to lend our
names and voices in support of Brendan. 
- Center on Wrongful Convictions.

Madison, Wisconsin — News that over 250 national legal experts and human rights activists are calling for a pardon or commutation for Brendan Dassey has put Gov Tony Evers (D) on the political defensive.

Evers along with Wisconsin Attorney General Joshua Kail (D) lead state democrats is their collective refusal to advocate for the wrongfully convicted, and to actively oppose exoneration for innocents.

Evers is known for his halting approach to public policy and profound ignorance of Wisconsin's corrupt criminal justice system.

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 police collaborators.

Reports Andy Thompson in the Appleton Post-Crescent:

Brendan Dassey’s bid for clemency in the Teresa Halbach murder has been bolstered by a show of support from national legal experts, social justice advocates and high-profile exonerees.

In a letter released Thursday to Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, Dassey’s legal team listed the backing of a wide-ranging list of nearly 250 individuals, including Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld, co-founders of the Innocence Project.

'We call upon you ... to use your sovereign powers of executive clemency, whether in the form of a pardon or a commutation, to end the incarceration of Brendan Dassey,' the letter says.

Scheck, who was among those who signed the letter, called it “an extremely important case.”

The letter also received the support of more than two dozen exonerees, a number of retired senior U.S. government officials, 45 current and former state and federal prosecutors, leading psychological experts and directors of more than 20 national justice organizations.

Dassey's bid for a pardon is an implicit statement that Dassey is innocent and Wisconsin law enforcement is so corrupt that it conspired to convict a teenager to help convict Dassey's uncle, Steven Avery.

Dassey and Avery are featured in the Emmy-winning Making a Murderer docu-series.

Law enforcement pursued Dassey as 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).

The Oct 24, 2019 letter reads in part:

Dear Governor Evers:

We write this letter to express our sincere hope that you will extend executive clemency, in the form of either a pardon or a commutation, to Brendan Dassey.

Each person who signed this letter brings a different perspective. Some of us are lawyers who practice variously in the state and federal courts, including in trial courts, appellate courts, and the United States Supreme Court. Some of us are psychologists, including leading experts in the psychology of interrogations and confessions. Some of us are experts on juvenile justice; some of us are disability experts. Some of us are academics who study miscarriages of justice in Wisconsin and abroad. Some of us are exonerees who have ourselves been convicted of crimes we did not commit and who were later cleared by DNA evidence. Still others simply wish to lend our names and voices in support of Brendan. 

Each of us feels called upon by our conscience to sign this letter. Many of us believe Brendan Dassey to be wrongly convicted and his statements, which constitute the primary evidence against him, to be unreliable. Many of us believe that the process that led to the conviction of this sixteen-year-old special education student was indefensibly flawed, characterized by egregious defense attorney misconduct. And many of us believe that Brendan’s sentence – life in prison, with no chance of parole until 2048 – is wildly inappropriate. All of us agree that, after serving more than thirteen years in prison and accumulating an exemplary prison record, it is time to bring Brendan Dassey home. 

We call upon you, Governor Evers, to use your sovereign power of executive clemency, whether in the form of a pardon or a commutation, to end the incarceration of Brendan Dassey.  You are an educator; you are a reformer; and you are a believer, like us, in justice, mercy, and redemption.  After you review this case, we believe your conscience will compel the conclusion that Brendan is worthy of the exercise of your clemency power.  We respectfully urge you to pardon Brendan Dassey or commute his sentence.

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

A Call to Boycott Wisconsin Democrats — Party Is over for Nihilistic Gang Defending Wrongful Convictions

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

Madison, Wisconsin — This is a call for withholding all political and electoral support for Wisconsin Democrats at all levels of government.

This action starts with opposing Gov Tony Evers (D), Attorney General Joshua Kaul (D), U.S. Rep Mark Pocan (D), and all Democrats down to any  state, county and municipal candidates who are silent on the wrongful convictions of Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey, and so many others languishing behind bars, ruining and preventing their lives.

The game, this charade, is over, people. 

The Democratic Party is imprisoning innocents and killing black and brown people in broad daylight, then defending these crimes in their elected offices of public trust. Kenosha and Jacob Blake are the norm.

Tony Robinson is the norm. Paul Heenan is the norm. Ashley DiPiazza is the norm. That's just Madison, the civilized place. Look, killer cops cannot operate for long without the support of the Democratic Party. This is the truth staring everyone in the face, and yet we look away.

In Wisconsin, supporters of black and brown folks, and Brendan Dassey and Steven Avery, it's time to pursue opposition to Wisconsin Democrats at all levels of government. This injustice system cannot go on unless we support Evers and Kaul in the political system.

Corrupt Wisconsin police targeted the innocent to tragic
consequence in cases of  Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey.
Image from 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 World War I.
Image depicts German state enlisting her son, shortly before
he was killed in a senseless and ridiculous war.

Evers and Kaul know the facts of these innocents in prison, especially Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey.

What escapes bums like Evers and Kaul is no individual life is worth the Democratic Party, especially this Democratic Party.

Over time, we can quickly raise the costs of Party opposition to freeing innocent men and women. 

Even a marginal raising of electoral costs will quickly degrade the Party in Wisconsin. No more support for Democrats, people. We want Brendan and Steven free?

The political system is the pressure point. This is the prominent way in which we pursue change and protect our very lives and liberty, yet many working for the freedom of innocents eschew the political and electoral systems as a means of freeing people who do not belong behind bars.

Most folks in Wisconsin, my state, had they resided in Germany in the 1930s would have made superlative NAZIs, worse -- by-standers. No more.
---

"I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me."

All the NAZIs required of the population is a "mood of passive compliance" as Hitler’s Holocaust and armies coursed through Europe as he promised a return to "traditional values" and security for good German families. -- Norman Cohn, Warrant for Genocide: The Myth of the Jewish World Conspiracy and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion (1970). Cited by Noam Chomsky, The Culture of Terrorism (1988).
--
Has anyone been watching the Derek Chauvin trial on Court TV?

Every witness at the Chauvin trial struggles with the question, 'should they have done more to save George Floyd?' The sadistic pig-cop Chauvin and his buddies did not struggle with any moral question. They viciously terrorized and killed a man.

Watch the sadist Chauvin driving his knee as he looks around and preens on a terrified George Floyd's neck, as he arrogantly flaunts his status as a cop among Minnesota-Nice society. What we do in Wisconsin's Democratic Party is worse, and this sick game must be over now.

Making a Murderer Part 2 Is a Brilliant Light Cast upon Depraved People — Wisconsin Cops and Prosecutors

Wisconsinites should watch Making a Murderer, Part 2,
and bear witness to the crucifixion of human beings by
Wisconsin at its most-depraved.
If it were in my power, I would make viewing both series
of Making a Murderer obligatory for Wisconsin
public school students and staff.

Revenge and malicious prosecutions — State terror in the Badger state

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

Madison, Wisconsin — We finished Making a Murderer, Part 2 (Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos) with critical minds and open hearts.

Lifelong Wisconsinites, both my life partner and I felt we were bearing witness. Such is the power of this pioneering documentary.

Making a Murderer, Part 2 shows attorney Kathleen Zellner's dismantling another wrongful conviction of Steven Avery, and a second, equally dedicated defense team led by attorney Laura Nirider, working for the other wrongfully convicted victim, Brendan Dassey, (induced into a wild, false confession of sorts), in this account of the Wisconsin criminal justice system.

Step-by-step, piece-of-evidence by piece-of-evidence, Zellner offers not just a compelling case of Avery's innocence, but an equally compelling case of criminal guilt by Wisconsin cops and prosecutors.

Wisconsin is not equipped, not wired, to expose, challenge and change its hellacious criminal justice system. We need help.

This documentary series brings viewers a spectacle of brutality and state violence, what we did to Steven Avery and Brenden Dassey and their families, victims of a framing scheme perpetrated by the Manitowoc and Calumet County (Wisconsin) Sheriff's offices and multi-jurisdictional prosecutions in kangaroo federal and state courts.

Bearing witness in viewing a series is assuming a duty to speak out and state, this is what happened and this is not done in our name.

It means asking the Wisconsin people to consider that having prosecuted and convicted innocent people for horrific crimes, it follows that the guilty are free and likely not leading lives in the tradition of Bertrand Russell and 20th century radical pacifists.

Avery was framed for murder because he was about to expose the ugly realities of Wisconsin law enforcement in his $36 million civil lawsuit for his first wrongful conviction.

I don't know how these County cops live with themselves. Then again I don't think I really understand killers and those who would lie with the objective to destroy lives.

Making a Murderer Part 2 is a brilliant chronicle, showing viewers the moral equivalent of murder committed twice against Avery, and once against Dassey in east-central Wisconsin.

The murderers are Ken Kratz (disgraced former district attorney and sex offender); Mark Wiegert, (sergeant at the Calumet County Sheriff's Office); Tom Fassbender (Wisconsin Division of Criminal Investigation investigator); Gene Kusche, the Manitowoc County chief deputy sheriff under Sheriff Tom Kocourek; Manitowoc County Sheriff's Lt. James Lenk; and Sgt. Andrew Colborn, all of whom acted in their official capacities to imprison the innocent, and inflict the psychological and physical deterioration of Mrs. and Mr. Avery, and Barb, Brenden Dassey's mother. Dozens more.

What horrific human garbage. 

This visual presentation of torture inflicted on the Avery and Dassey families is critical to understanding what a few dozen yahoos in Wisconsin are capable of — a state crucifixion of ordinary people in Wisconsin, a pleasant place to live, a great place to grow up, but a region full of by-standers, ignoramuses, and cowards.
 ---
I know. I grew up in east-central Wisconsin in Fond du Lac, about 45 miles southwest of Manitowoc.

I loved what for me was a privileged first 19 years amid nigger jokes, Jew jokes, and a population steeped in committed ignorance. But none of it touched me, though on more than one occasion I felt like I was bearing witness to a region steeped in stupidity and racism, and every public official bar none who failed to speak out.

The same dehumanization and madness behind racism are at play in Manitowoc and Calumet counties.
  ---
There is plenty of footage in Making a Murderer Part 2 on Attorney General Brad Schimel (R), a typical Wisconsin Republican sadist who has kept the torture going.

Schimel was just defeated in his bid for reelection last November by a young Democratic candidate, Josh Kaul, another native of east-central Wisconsin and my hometown—Fond du Lac.

In the campaign for attorney general, crucifying the innocent was never an issue. It remains unclear how Kaul and the new governor, Tony Evers, also from east-central Wisconsin, will perform in their offices to put a stop to these obvious-to-any-rational-observer wrongful convictions.

With respect to Tony Evers, I don't think the man is equipped in intellect, character or inclination to correct an injustice through commutation or pardoning. Evers is just another by-stander, a bureaucratic non-entity.

When it comes to criminal justice and human lives, Wisconsin's political and legal cultures range from numb to malicious. Evers is numb.
---
That addresses a question implicit in Making a Murderer Part 2: How did the Avery and Dassey crucifixions happen?

How do depraved criminals like Ken Kratz and the Calumet and Manitowoc County Sheriff's office get away with framing innocent people?

We in Wisconsin let them.

The injustice inflicted upon Avery and Dassey evokes Sacco and Vanzetti.

The innocent Sacco and Vanzetti were targeted, tortured and killed.

The killers murdered them because they could and because they would.

There is overwhelming evidence of corruption in Wisconsin / Manitowoc County. You yourself admit law enforcement let a violent rapist go free in 1985 ... and that was without being motivated by Avery's lawsuit. History repeating itself? #MakingAMurderer #MakingAMurdererPart2

— Making A Murderer - NeedlessThings (@Presumed_Guilty) November 21, 2018

This is the role of the police in American society: To carry out injustice.

What our role as citizens becomes is precisely what we make of it.

Viewing Making a Murderer, Part Two, it's clear that we as citizens gave cops and assorted killers a free pass to seek revenge against Avery and Dassey.

Avery was about to publicly display Manitowoc County as stupid and malicious, and Dassey was available.

It's the way it is here for killer cops, for Penny Brummer, and so many innocents to list.

Woke up at 5am with my daughter this morning and rewatched the last 2 episodes of @MakingAMurderer Thankful for women like @ZellnerLaw who demand justice and fight corruption. #FreeStevenAvery

— Hilarie Burton (@HilarieBurton) November 23, 2018

Watching Making a Murderer, Part 2 is to experience an ongoing hope that at some point, surely some decent force, some authority with a regard for liberty and humanity, is going to put a stop to this madness in Manitowoc.

After-all, the state and governmental authority are mere instruments to assure the liberty and happiness of the individual.

There is the writ of habeas corpus petition, the great writ, the last-chance for the innocent — weakened in 1996 in the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA). [Thank you, Bill and Hillary Clinton for that.]

There's two broad methods judges can employ in considering post-conviction, habeas petitions in federal litigation.

Judges can consider the wisdom of Richard Posner (U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, (1981-2017)), on judicial opinion writing in federal appellate court: "Be sure to read every case, statute, regulation article, treatise, etc., [case documents]," (p. 257, Reflections on Judging (Harvard University Press. 2013)).

Alternatively, an appellate judge such as David F. Hamilton can effectively stick his head in a hole, dismissing facts and understanding of police and judicial action against a prisoner of the state.

Hamilton and appellate judges Frank Easterbrook, Michael Kanne and Diane Sykes of the Seventh Circuit chose the head-in-hole approach to habeas jurisprudence.

"[O]ur job as a federal court reviewing a state conviction under § 2254(d) [application for a writ of habeas corpus] is not to consult scholarly literature in search of new best practices," intoned Hamilton in his astonishingly dismissive opinion that overturned a federal district court and a three-judge ruling granting habeas relief to Brendan Dassey, (p.111, Dassey v. Dittman).

Avery's attorney, Kathleen Zellner, was clearly appalled at this Dred Scott of Habeas litigation.

Reading Hamilton's opinion on intentional ignorance of scholarly literature, Zellner replies, icy and incensed: "Really? Why not? Why would you not be availing yourself of what experts have determined about false confessions?" (Episode 8; 24 minutes, 45 seconds).

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

— Jerome Buting (@JButing) May 10, 2018

Steven Avery is demonstrably innocent. Avery's case will become a wrecking crew of injustice. We're that close.

When Avery wins his legal fight, Brendan Dassey will be released. He cannot be an accomplice to a crime that did not occur.

But have we come to public crucifixions in Wisconsin? Has Wisconsin really come to that?

"It 'came to that' the first time you sentenced a man to death you knew to be innocent."

The quote is from Spencer Tracy as a composite character of Robert H. Jackson and other jurists in Judgement at Nuremberg (1961), a film worthy of the topic.

Wisconsin does not have the death penalty, but the bodies are piling up.