Imagine spending eighteen years of your life in prison for a crime you did not commit. The man who served that time will never get those eighteen years back. That man is Steven Avery. On July 29, 1985, at approximately 3:50 PM, Penny Beerntsen was attacked and raped by a stranger while running along a beach in Wisconsin (Innocence Project, 2016). After she picked her assailant out of a police lineup, he was convicted and sentenced to thirty-two years in prison, and for eighteen of those years, Beerntsen knew that her rapist was behind bars. But in 2003, newly discovered DNA evidence proved that Steven Avery, was not the man who attacked her (Innocence Project, 2016). While he sat in prison, the real rapist, Gregory Allen, remained free before …show more content…
They stuck to themselves and lived close to each other on their family property, where they also ran a car yard (Ricciardi, 2015). They had a few mix-ups with the law over the years. Steven Avery has been charged with multiple burglaries and cruelty to an animal, in which he dumped gasoline on a cat and proceeded to place it in a fire (Ricciardi, 2015). Avery was also accused by a local woman, who happened to be a relative and married to a county deputy, of running her off the road and pulling a gun on her (Ricciardi, 2015). He admitted to doing so but he claimed the gun wasn't loaded. Though Steven has an IQ of 70 (Ricciardi, 2015), he claims he always admits to his wrongdoings if he actually did them, and his past run-ins with the law have proved that to be true. Before his imprisonment for the rape of Penny Beernsteen, Avery seemed to be getting his life together. He got married and had kids. But while he was in prison for the rape conviction, Avery and his wife divorced, he lost any rights to his kids, and any extra money he or his family had went toward his appeals. Looking for justice after his exoneration, Avery decided to file a thirty-six million dollar lawsuit against Manitowoc County and the officers who took part in his wrongful conviction (Ricciardi, …show more content…
Lt. James Lenk was again present when the bullet was discovered (Ricciardi, 2015). DNA analyst, Sherry Culhane, testified that there was only enough DNA for one test, and she contaminated that test (Ricciardi, 2015). Though it doesn't change the discovery of Halbach's DNA in the sample. Strang and Buting then pointed out that Culhane's notes from her phone call with the prosecution's investigators said that she tried "to put [Halbach] in the garage or house." (Ricciardi, 2015). That showed that she was asked not for the truth, but to help convict
The documentary, Making a Murderer brought national attention to an otherwise statewide murder case known mainly in the state of Wisconsin. The cases, which both involved the murder of Teresa Halbach, were The State of Wisconsin Vs. Steven Avery and The State of Wisconsin Vs. Brendan Dassey. The handling of the cases is up to debate, especially the verdicts themselves.
Breanne Barbato Journalism Final Petition for Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey to be released. Imagine being targeted by those who are expected to protect you and your rights, what would you do? After the release of the Netflix Original documentary series, Making a Murderer, there is a petition being held that is currently at 445,000 out of 500,000 signatures to possibly free the convicted ‘murderers’. The petition will be sent to and reviewed by for the White House and Supreme Court.
Remember the how it was repeatedly stated that Avery was in jail for 18 years for a crime he didn't commit? It was 12 years. 6 were for assault. He chased his cousin down at gun point. Avery used Halbach multiple times to take pictures of cars to sell in Auto Trader.
In 1993 Maher wrote the innocence project who then helped him fight his case. In 1997 the Innocence project filed a motion for DNA which was denied without a hearing. In 2001 a law student found a box that contained evidence from the lowell cases in the basement of the Middlesex County Courthouse. In the box there were pants and underwear collected from both victims. Both sources of evidence were sent to Forensic Science Associates where the performed DNa testing.
Of the witness’s one was the clerk of a story in Green Bay, WI who stated that Avery and his five children were buying paint at around 1700 that day. A receipt was also presented, showing that Avery was present in Green Bay on that day at 1713. Innocenceproject.org says in order for Steven to have been the perpetrator of this attack “Avery would have had to leave the scene of the attack, walk a mile to the nearest parking area, drive home, load his family into the car, and drive 45 miles in just over an hour.” The witnesses testifying for Avery’s whereabouts during the attack should have been grounds enough for further
All of his appeals got denied. Then, his post-conviction lawyers Robert Henak and Stephen Glenn had the DNA evidence tested in 1995. The court shot down the evidence stating that the 3rd set of alleles from the test could have belonged to anyone and didn’t prove Steven’s innocence. Eventually, the Wisconsin Innocence Project got the rape kit tested again. The lab found a rooted pubic hair and tested it.
Avery kept proclaiming his innocence during his appeals. In 2001, the Wisconsin Innocence Project agreed to review Avery's case. The Wisconsin Innocence Project requested permission to conduct advanced DNA testing from the Wisconsin court of Appeals. On September 10, 2003,
Steven Avery has an IQ of 70 and barely functioned in school. Steven is known to admit to his flaws and own up to the wrong he’s done, but no matter how many times he denies he is still the prime suspect. Penny Beernsten was
The Avery family was not a popular family; in fact they were quite disliked. They were known as that trashy family who owned the car junk yard. The Avery family was not the richest family either. Even though popularity and wealth was not on their side no one deserves to go through what Steven Avery did. Avery admitted to the crime of burglary in 1981 and also to the crime of animal cruelty in 1982 for throwing the house
This made him a monster because he lied in court about multiple things that an innocent person wouldn’t lie about. Finally, Steve hangs around the wrong crowd and it backfires and has problems with communication because he didn’t tell the authorities about the robbery he knew about. He knew about the robbery and failed to tell anyone that's a problem because there was a possibility that people could have gotten hurt and they could've gotten caught. Steve made bad decisions and hung around bad people and this caused him to potentially ruin his life and future. From this evidence and information about Steve do you think he should’ve served time for his
Case Gone Wrong: Anthony vs State of Florida Case No. 5D11-2357 If ever there was a botched case it was this one with inconsistencies on the part of the State being overwhelming. I watched this trial intently and read everything available.
Allen was then serving a 60-year prison term for a sexual assault in Green Bay that occurred after the attack on Beernsten. On September 11, 2003, a request brought by the Manitowoc District Attorney’s Office and the Wisconsin Innocence Project to dismiss the charges was granted and Avery was released. In 2005, with support from Beernsten and Avery, the Wisconsin Department of Justice implemented a model eyewitness identification procedure. Unfortunately for Avery, that wasn’t going to be his only bad encounter with justice. On October 31, 2005, photographer Teresa Halbach was scheduled to meet with Steven Avery at his home on the grounds of Avery 's Auto Salvage to photograph a minivan for Auto Trader Magazine.
However, this story of Mrs. Stephens being helpless is all the defense has. But how can you, the jury, believe a story from a woman that would lie to doctors, to police,
1.Society as a whole believes serial killer are evil because that is how the media portrays them. We subconsciously let the media control our thoughts by believing it what they tell us. The media knows the power they have over us when we listen to the news, watching a movie or even reading the newspaper. In the way they report news on serial killers , it promotes fear and anxiety to their viewers. Movies even have more effect than we realize as well .
O.J. Simpson was a famous football player and that was accused of killing his ex-wife nicole brown , also her boyfriend Ron Goldman. They were brutally stabbed to death on June 12, 1994 at the resident of Nicole brown condo in Brentwood. Before the bodies were ever recovered Oj had packed his bags and caught a flight to Chicago, later he received a phone call saying that Nicole Brown was murder. The cops wanted to talk to him and later he had lead the cops on a hot pursuit chase and they apprehended him. OJ Simpson should be held accountable for murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman.