Jeffrey Phelps/Associated Press
Posted on 11/23/2005 3:20:01 AM PST by Pharmboy
Advocates for the falsely convicted face the uncomfortable consequences of success now that a man exonerated in a sexual assault has been charged with murder. ________________________________________________________
Jeffrey Phelps/Associated Press
Steven Avery leaving prison in 2003 with his sister, Barb Janda, and daughter Jennifer.
Tim Swoboda/Associated Press
Mr. Avery in court on a homicide charge on Nov. 15.
MADISON, Wis., Nov. 17 -...
For days, however, the case of Steven Avery, who was once this state's living symbol of how a system could unfairly send someone away, has left all who championed his cause facing the uncomfortable consequences of their success...
Two years ago, Mr. Avery emerged from prison after lawyers from one of those organizations, the Wisconsin Innocence Project at the University of Wisconsin Law School, proved that Mr. Avery had spent 18 years in prison for a sexual assault he did not commit.
In Mr. Avery's home county, Manitowoc, where he was convicted in 1985, his release prompted apologies, even from the sexual assault victim, and a welcoming home for Mr. Avery. Elsewhere, the case became Wisconsin's most noted exoneration, leading to an "Avery task force," which drew up a package of law enforcement changes known as the Avery Bill, adopted by state lawmakers just weeks ago.
Mr. Avery, meanwhile, became a spokesman for how a system could harm an innocent man, being asked to appear on panels about wrongful conviction, to testify before the State Legislature and to be toured around the Capitol by at least one lawmaker who described him as a hero.
...Mr. Avery, 43, was accused once more. This time, he was charged in the death of Teresa Halbach, a 25-year-old photographer who vanished on Oct. 31 after being assigned to take pictures for Auto Trader magazine at Avery's Auto Salvage.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Memo to the Left:
Don't you hate when that happens?
These Project Innocence outcomes are not always in the name of innocence or justice.
Makes you wonder if one day they'll find an error in the DNA test which proves that it's not as certain as they think it is?
if the DNA evidence was for a different human being then he was not guilty....of course the cops probably picked him up as he was one of "the usual suspects" as he probably was and still is a 'dirtbag'. or.....years of having to bend over for his bigger, meaner roomie screwed up his head (along with other things).
either way it is not at all unbelievable to me.
Yep...I'm sure he had priors.
Why that's...that's...$12,000,000 contingency up in smoke as we speak! Drat! And I could have found some McDonalds coffee drinker to represent! Drat, again!
So9
What's "uncomfortable" about it? In this country, we're supposed to imprison people for crimes they commit, not for crimes we think they might someday commit.
Now fry the bastard if he's guilty of murder and lets move on to the next one.
You got that right! It was probably just like seeing someone toss your winning lotto ticket into the fire!
Reminds me of a story about two Club Gitmo releases who were found the other day making trouble again.
Advocates for the falsely convicted face the uncomfortable consequences of success now that a man exonerated in a sexual assault has been charged with murder.
So we should leave the falsely convicted in prison because they might commit other crimes if they were out?
I'm not "uncomfortable" about releasing wrongly convicted prisoners. If they commit other crimes and get properly convicted, then they can do the time for those.
Seems those who would free rapists, especially those convicted with eye witness corroboration, never seem to acknowledge that a condom may have been used by the rapist and the victim may have had consensual sexual relations with someone else. Sperm can remain alive in the cervix for 48 hours.That's nice, but this sort of speculation does seem to fall a little short of the beyond-a-reasonable-doubt standard we require the State to meet before we let it put someone behind bars.
Makes you wonder if one day they'll find an error in the DNA test which proves that it's not as certain as they think it is?It doesn't need to be "certain" in acquitting an accused criminal. It just needs to raise a reasonable doubt.
If you had bothered to read the article you would of found the facts were that the DNA from the pubic hair found on the woman came from another man who is now serving time for another sexual assault. So the rapist was really someone else.
Not voicing an opinion on this particular case.
Oh, there are several people on FR with a surreal level of unease of the idea that anyone innocent has ever been imprisoned, and and weird hatred of the Innocence Project, who routinely try to concoct kooky scenarios to convince themselves that everyone the Innocence Project is freeing is actually guilty. I'm surprised "Chimeras" haven't been rolled out on this thread.
The reality is DNA has convicted a heck of a lot more people than it's freed, and if people want to create weird fantasy scenarios to posit the people being freed DNA evidence are guilty, then that opens the door to the idea that the far greater number of people convicted largely on DNA evidence could be freed by positing equally kooky and unlikely scenarios.
I would bet that this was not his first crime...although I do not dispute that false imprisonment is an unholy nightmare.
Here in IL, with the exception of Daley's convictions of the Ford Heights Four, and Daley's conviction of the Bible rapist, most convictions of the innocent occur when a prosecutor "frames" a loser with a record to improve the prosecutor's win-loss record and to give closure to the family of the victim and to the press who are clamoring for the police and prosecutor to "do something".
Rolando Cruz is the best example. He was a loser and pothead. But not a murderer. He was a frequent informant to States Attorney Jim Ryan and the county sheriff. It was in that role that the officials knew that he was innocent but also knew that they could frame him and get away with it because no jury would believe that loser, which was true.
Daley is the exception in that while he was Crook County States Attorney and Mayor-in-waiting he knowingly framed people who were not losers.
The above comments on the innocent who were convicted in IL is not to be confused with the convictions of the guilty that were overturned on technicalities. Both types of situations exist in IL. Those who get off on a technicality take advantage of the publicity given the truly innocent.
Since he had a prior history of violence, makes you wonder how many people (and animals) were spared over his 18yrs in prison....including his daughter.
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