" by Dan Satherly, published by Newshub (NZ) on July 27, 2016.
GIST: "A teenager is convicted of rape and murder and thrown in prison after giving a false confession. It's the story of Teina Pora's life, but also that of Brendan Dassey, one of the men at the centre of hit Netflix documentary Making a Murderer - at least according to his ex-lawyer. Dassey was 17 when he and uncle Steven Avery were convicted of raping and murdering Teresa Halbach. Avery, who had already spent 18 years behind bars for another rape he was later proven innocent of, denied having anything to do with the 2005 crimes. Dassey, then 16, was his alibi - but the teenager cracked under a controversial police interrogation and confessed. He later recanted - just like Pora, then 17, who had to wait two decades for his freedom. Lawyer Jerry Buting compared the two cases while speaking to Paul Henry this morning, saying most people don't realise how common wrongful convictions and false confessions really are. "Wrongful convictions are not unique to America. You've had them in New Zealand," the defence attorney said. "You've had the very well-publicised case of Teina Pora, who spent many years incarcerated in New Zealand and wrongfully and falsely confessed. You see that in this documentary with 16-year-old Brendan Dassey, the nephew of Steven Avery as well. I think people are really shocked that they see [this]. "Dassey, like Pora, has limited intelligence. His uncle had an IQ of 70, and a Newsweek article about the Netflix show said Dassey had "severely below-average intelligence, poor social skills and limited reasoning ability". Pora suffers from fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, which went undiagnosed at the time of his original conviction. Buting says while Avery remains the only person in the US charged with a homicide after being wrongfully imprisoned and freed, cases like those of Dassey and Pora are all too common.
GIST: "A teenager is convicted of rape and murder and thrown in prison after giving a false confession. It's the story of Teina Pora's life, but also that of Brendan Dassey, one of the men at the centre of hit Netflix documentary Making a Murderer - at least according to his ex-lawyer. Dassey was 17 when he and uncle Steven Avery were convicted of raping and murdering Teresa Halbach. Avery, who had already spent 18 years behind bars for another rape he was later proven innocent of, denied having anything to do with the 2005 crimes. Dassey, then 16, was his alibi - but the teenager cracked under a controversial police interrogation and confessed. He later recanted - just like Pora, then 17, who had to wait two decades for his freedom. Lawyer Jerry Buting compared the two cases while speaking to Paul Henry this morning, saying most people don't realise how common wrongful convictions and false confessions really are. "Wrongful convictions are not unique to America. You've had them in New Zealand," the defence attorney said. "You've had the very well-publicised case of Teina Pora, who spent many years incarcerated in New Zealand and wrongfully and falsely confessed. You see that in this documentary with 16-year-old Brendan Dassey, the nephew of Steven Avery as well. I think people are really shocked that they see [this]. "Dassey, like Pora, has limited intelligence. His uncle had an IQ of 70, and a Newsweek article about the Netflix show said Dassey had "severely below-average intelligence, poor social skills and limited reasoning ability". Pora suffers from fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, which went undiagnosed at the time of his original conviction. Buting says while Avery remains the only person in the US charged with a homicide after being wrongfully imprisoned and freed, cases like those of Dassey and Pora are all too common.
"Particularly
the interrogation of juveniles and people of limited mental capacity or
disabilities that can fall prey to the sorts of psychological course of
techniques that police officers use. That unfortunately is very
commonplace, particularly in America." Dassey was
interrogated numerous times by police without a lawyer, parent or other
adult present, repeatedly accused of carrying out the crimes. Pora
initially denied murdering Susan Burdett, but later went to police
hoping to win a $20,000 bounty for information about the case. He too
was interrogated without a lawyer present.
Buting
has testified with supporting evidence that his client was framed for
the later conviction as retaliation for rubbing the establishment up the
wrong way, after he won his freedom for the original wrongful
conviction. Dassey's appeal is currently pending in federal court, and Buting says a decision could be made any day."
The entire story can be found at:
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The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at:
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http://smithforensic.blogspot.
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Harold Levy;
Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog;
