Posted on 11/14/2018 1:53:43 PM PST by Kaslin
Undoing wrongful convictions takes a killer instinct.
Chicago-based exoneration specialist Kathleen Zellner's got it. Her record speaks for itself. Over the past two decades, she has righted more wrongful convictions than any private attorney in America. What's her secret? The Herculean task of untangling official lies, investigative bias, prosecutorial misconduct, ineffective counsel and forensic junk science to free 19 innocent men requires more than intellectual firepower (of which Zellner possesses a chess grandmaster's surplus).
The job demands iron will and unshakeable fortitude to beat a system rigged to preserve government errors and protect prosecutions. As the "Survivor" slogan goes: "Outwit, outplay, outlast."
"If someone's innocent," Tenacious Z says with trademark bluntness, "you find a way."
In case you've been living in a cave, Zellner is the breakout star of Netflix's "Making a Murderer: Part 2," released last month as a follow-up to the original 2015 documentary on the plight of Wisconsin auto salvage worker Steven Avery. He served 18 years for an alleged sexual assault and attempted murder in 1985 that he did not commit. Two years after being exonerated and freed when DNA testing cleared him and identified the real culprit, Manitowoc County police and prosecutors faced Avery's $36 million civil suit against them.
But just as two of the key architects of the wrongful conviction -- former sheriff Tom Kocourek and former prosecutor Denis Vogel -- were scheduled to be deposed, murder charges were brought against Avery and his nephew Brendan Dassey in the death of photographer Teresa Halbach. The case conveniently short-circuited the landmark civil suit and landed Avery and Dassey in prison, where they remain today.
The copious evidence that Avery and Dassey were framed by corrupt cops and disgraced, sexting-addicted former prosecutor Ken Kratz (whom Zellner has affectionately dubbed "Sweaty") is subject to hot debate. But Manitowoc County, Wisconsin, and the state's unmistakable incentive to perpetrate another wrongful conviction is not. As Chuck Avery, Steven Avery's brother, noted in the original series:
"There are 36 million reasons why they should be doing this to him."
In addition to pursuing the "why" and the "how," "Making a Murderer: Part 2" provides a singular public service: Introducing millions of viewers to the world of post-conviction hell. The procedural obstacles are maddening, the investigative efforts painstaking and the wait interminable. The series follows Dassey's lawyers' suspenseful trip up to the Supreme Court, but the heart of "Making a Murderer: Part 2" is Zellner's multipart master class on how to undermine confidence in a verdict by uncovering new evidence and exposing suppression or concealment of evidence that affected the outcome of the trial.
While old and new fans of the show have been riveted by the post-conviction crash course, snooty New York TV critics and jaded Hollywood entertainment reporters have turned up their noses at the 10-part series. Most of the complaints are nonsensical and self-contradictory: "Making a Murderer: Part 2" is too "slow" and ponderous, they carp, while simultaneously resurrecting criticism of the original series that too much information was left out.
That's a typical pro-prosecution talking point of the establishment Wisconsin whiners. Leaving out some material is not a sign of subversive bias. This is documentary journalism, not stenography. Let's get real: Avery's case record is 20,000 pages long. Any news article, broadcast or documentary on any court case is going to "omit" material. If you need every last bit of information, find a court reporter or file a public information request.
The beauty and genius of "Making a Murderer: Part 2" and Zellner's approach to unraveling Avery's wrongful conviction is that it encourages transparency and incentivizes viewers to do their own homework. Zellner's populist instincts explain her command of Twitter; her account has exploded since the new series' debut last month. Unlike the Good Ol' Boys Club of government prosecutors and privileged class of media heel-biters, she engages, responds and crowdsources on social media with the same zeal she brings to every one of her cases. She detests incompetence, secrecy, corruption and perspiring abusers of power.
I've come to know Zellner and her extraordinary work through my own initiation into wrongful convictions over the past two years, since I first started investigating the case of former Oklahoma City police officer Daniel Holtzclaw. Zellner is defending Holtzclaw against federal civil suits filed by accusers (many with shocking criminal records of violence and lying) whose uncorroborated, ever-evolving tales of sexual assault were procured by biased detectives and unscrupulous prosecutors.
What especially stands out to me is that in deconstructing fake narratives during her search for truth, Zellner eschews political correctness like no one else in the innocence community. Her exonerees and clients are black and white, poor and middle-class, from ghettos and flyover country, civilians and cops. She doesn't worry about academic sensitivities or ideological orthodoxy. And she doesn't yield to elitist expectations about the polite and proper way to "practice" law.
Leave no stone unturned. Make no apologies. Never give up. That's the Zellner way.
Zellner is brilliant and both pieces of the case, Avery & Dassey, are faulty on many levels. This mess isn’t limited to the Wisconsin legal system, but IMO it’s typical of most, if not all of our judicial systems. I don’t see them getting out unless some new evidence is discovered. I wish Zellner luck.
An epic reminder that while ‘Justice’ SHOULD BE BLIND, the people behind our justice system can and do have motives OTHER than justice. As the brother says, 36 million reason$ can ‘justify’ a lot of dark operations. Not knowing anything about this case outside of what is here, I wonder if out-going Governor Walker could spare a few minutes?
Zellner is badass. She got that young Jesse Peterson kid exonerated awhile back too. I believe that was in Illinois.
O J Simpson should hire her to clear to prove his innocence once and for all.
In part, the barriers and procedures are there because of widespread abuse of the system to get off of charges. No surprise legitimately innocent people find it also difficult.
And NEVER a thought to the VICTIM and her family in this case! These lawyers make me sick to my stomach.
Teresa Halbach could not be reached for comment...
Michelle Malkin is going to be eating these words. Unreal!
She freed Ryan Ferguson, a case I was tangentially involved with thru the Innocence Project.
She freed Ryan Ferguson, a case I was tangentially involved with thru the Innocence Project.
Hopefully one day there will be justice for Teresa Halbach and her family. It hasn’t happened yet...
Not remotely similar, besides OJ has his own investigators searching for the killers.
I’m not sure about the case, but descriptions of the documentary, which liberals seemed to take as gospel, sounded very one-sided in favor of the defense. Liberals bristled any time anyone questions conclusions of the documentary and had an antifa/”social justice warrior” mindset towards getting Avery and Dassey released.
I believe Avery killed Ms Halbeck. There is no doubt in my mind.
But the police interrogation of his nephew, Dassey, didn’t sit well with me at all. The kid is pretty dim. They were feeding him information and leading him. He told them what they wanted to hear. I watched the entire 3 hour video on YouTube. Still doesn’t sit well with me.
Dassey’s attorney was working for the Prosecution.
I don’t think Steven Avery killed the woman. The cops go back to the triler motr than 7-8 tims before finding a key fob that didn’t have Avery’s DNA on it, nor the woman’s DNA. And they found it in plain sight.
Cops claimed she was shot in the bedrom, but there was no blood or DNA. Cops tore up the garage floor, claiming she was cut up. They were looking for blood evidence in the cracks with the floor; there was no blood.
Avery had about a $33 million judgment in hand against the state and town for the first wrongful conviction.The Dacy testimony was highly improper.
Thanks for the correction. Not sure where I got that name from. Great job on Ferguson who really got railroaded. Was the other kid ever released?
The Avery conviction is predicated on Dassey’s confession which I agree was defective given his low IQ and lack or representation. The physical evidence, the bullet with no DNA and the burn pit, which forensically was proven couldn’t consume a body in the way the prosecution stated, are just two pieces that don’t fit. Not to mention that Avery had won a $32 million dollar judgement against the state related to a previous illegal arrest & imprisonment. This isn’t to mention that the entire Avery family is a dysfunctional mess, but I thought Zellner’s implication of his brother-in-law was a new twist that was totally ignored by the state.
Avery didn’t win 32million in his lawsuit. That’s what he wanted but settled for 400k to pay for his lawyers for his murder trial.
The doc was extremely one sided. Avery’s girlfriend later claimed he was abusive towards her and believed that “all bitches owed him” because of his wrongful conviction for the rape. Also, the murder victim was scared of Avery from previous contact with him.
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