INTRODUCTION: "By now, you have probably heard about the docuseries
Making a Murderer
released on Netflix last month. The series, which documents the life of
Steven Avery from the time of his exoneration in 2005 to his current
incarceration, immediately gained national popularity. While the concept
of wrongful conviction is a new topic of interest for the general
public, it has been an extremely important issue for those involved with
and interested in the criminal justice system for quite some time now.
It is incredible that interest in wrongful convictions continues to gain
popularity because it represents a step in the right direction towards
reforming the justice system in order to lessen the chances of these
life-altering mistakes occurring. Innocence Project of Florida’s (IPF) blog, Plain Error, has been
revamped this year, producing new content every day. Because of the
immense public interest in
Making a Murderer and the continued
following of the cases even after watching the entire series, IPF has
decided to do a digital roundtable discussion about the docuseries on
the Plain Error blog. Once a week, each episode will be discussed in
order, and perhaps even a few episodes at a time. The posts will give a
brief recap of what happened in the episode discussed, and IPF’s
executive director, Seth Miller, and intake coordinator, Dr. Adina M.
Thompson will discuss and answer questions about the content in each
episode, along with the innocence movement’s response to the handling of
the cases in the series. Without further ado, the roundtable discussion will begin with the first episode, “Eighteen Years Lost.”
RECAP: Steven Avery of Manitowoc County, Wisconsin, was sentenced to 32
years in prison for the 1985 sexual assault, attempted murder, and false
imprisonment of Penny Beerntsen. Although innocent of these crimes, he
spent 18 years behind bars. On July 29, 1985, Penny Beerntsen was sexually assaulted while jogging at a beach along Lake Michigan Beerntsen described her attacker to the responding officer at the
hospital, Deputy Judy Dvorak, who commented that the description sounded
like Steven Avery, who was not well-liked in the community. Chief
Deputy Eugene Kusche drew his own composite from an mugshot of Avery was
taken from jail records, instead of basing the migshot on the victim’s
description of the attacker. This drawing was shown to Beerntsen, who
confirmed that he was her attacker Later that night, Avery was arrested. The next day, his lawyer was
informed that the sheriff ordered Avery’s name not be on the jail list,
that he not be allowed visitors, that he not be allowed access to the
phone, and that he be held in a cellblock alone so he could not have
contact with anyone. District Attorney Denis Vogel cited Avery’s past
criminal record, and he was denied bail. While Avery was incarcerated, a man by the name of Gregory Allen, who
had an extensive criminal history for sexual crimes by violence,
repeatedly came up. Sheriff Tom Kocourek was approached by several
officers, including Detective Thomas Bergner of the Manitowoc City
Police Department, who suggested that the wrong man was in jail for the
crimes against Beerntsen and recommended Allen may be responsible. Three
women from the District Attorney’s office expressed their concerns to
Vogel that the wrong man was incarcerated, also suggesting that Allen
may be responsible. Yet the prosecutor did nothing. Due to his history
of sex crimes, the city of Manitowoc required daily surveillance of
Allen. On the afternoon of Beerntsen’s assault, the officers assigned to
monitor him that day were called away to work on other crimes;
therefore, Allen was not under surveillance during Beerntsen’s attack. Avery had several alibi witnesses that accounted for his whereabouts
on the day of the crime, in addition to a shopping receipt with a time
stamp.
From 1986 to 1994, Avery appealed his conviction all the way up to
the Wisconsin Supreme Court, but all of his appeals were denied. In 1994, Stephen Glynn and Robert Henak agreed to reexamine Avery’s
case. They obtained the sex crimes kit and tested the victim’s
fingernail scrapings. The tests involved alleles at a single genetic
marker, two of which Avery and Beerntsen shared; a third allele that did
not match either of them, meaning there was DNA under the victim’s
nails that could not have come from Avery. Glynn and Henak presented these findings, but ultimately the court
sided with the state; the court of appeals and the Wisconsin Supreme
Court would later side with the state’s argument, too. The state argued
that since tests could not prove who’s DNA was identified in the nail
scrapings, they could not discount for the fact that the DNA could
belong to Beerntsen’s husband, the couple that found her, the doctors
that examined her, etc. In 2001, the Wisconsin Innocence Project agreed to take Avery’s case.
The organization also obtained the sex crimes kit and tested pubic
hairs; one of the hairs generated a full profile from which Avery was
conclusively excluded, meaning the pubic hair could not have come from
him. The hair’s profile was run through the convicted offender DNA
database and matched Gregory Allen, the alternative suspect. Based on
this evidence, Avery was exonerated in 2003. Due to misconduct in the case, the Wisconsin Attorney General ordered
the Division of Criminal Investigation to examine Manitowoc County’s
handling of Avery’s 1985 case. Specifically, evidence existed that
District Attorney was aware of Gregory Allen as the likely perpetrator
but buried that information in his file. Inexplicably, the investigators
concluded that no criminal or ethical violations occurred. Because the
investigation did not hold the prosecutors accountable for their
misconduct, Avery filed a lawsuit seeking $36 million in compensation
for his loss of freedom and punitive damages for indifferent behavior of
the defendants. The defendants in the suit included Manitowoc County,
Sheriff Tom Kocourek, and District Attorney Denis Vogel.
DISCUSSION: Proceed to the following link below for the 'roundtable discussion' on Episode 1.
http://floridainnocence.org/content/?p=12264