In the past few weeks, thousands of viewers have been enthralled by the Netflix series Making a Murderer, which examines the trial of two men, Steven Avery and his nephew, Brendan Dassey.
In 2005 the pair were charged with the abduction, rape and murder of a photographer named Teresa Halbach – but the programme-makers claimed to have discovered serious flaws in the way the police investigation and subsequent trial were handled.
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It would be inappropriate for a pardon but a judicial review for a new trial wouldn't be unreasonable. This time ruling any evidence provided by the county in question be inadmissible.
ReplyDeleteI remember quite clearly that every time that another black man was shot and killed by the police you would say, "Well he shouldn't have been breaking the law". Seeing the reaction that white America has had to this gives me deep concern. You don't have to break the law to get wrapped up with the police and you don't have to be guilty to be found that way in court. The prosecution plays the media like a fiddle and you're guilty before you even walk in the court.
ReplyDeleteIf the police patrolled white neighborhoods the way they do black ones the crime statistics would be closer to reality.
I feel like I'm in a Harper Lee novel where the reality of what's going on doesn't click until someone say " What if he was white". You get a year of constant news of blacks being murdered in the street and you do nothing, but a white guy with other criminal charges in his past gets railroaded by the system and you say, " How could the police do this, I need to sign a petition."
We need to go back to the "Stop snitching" campaign from years ago. It's the same way the cops, prosecutors and judges protect each other. If it were white America in the position of black right now, we would have burned the entire city of Baltimore to the ground. But I saw comments on here that labeled the entire black lives matter movement extremists because one guy burned down a CVS.
And one more thing. You say, "Why burn your own community, your only hurting yourself." The reality is that the banks won't give loans in those communities. They won't do it until the developers come in to begin the gentrification and push the property up so high that the people never given a chance to own their home need to move. It's not your community if you have no stake in it.
So please do me a favor. The next time a black person gets accused without real evidence, shot, harrased, kicked in the jaw, or proclaimed dead to rights by the BS artists in media, I want you to think of the Avery's. Realize that the police see a young black male, or see Mr. Avery, and say the same thing to themselves...
Easy Target.
The long short of it is, Ken Katz (the special prosecutor for Calumet County) publicized the investigation during its infancy. He ruled out any other 'potentials' before other suspects could even be interviewed or checked out. He participated in extreme posturing by stating before a newscast, "If you are under the age of 16, please do not watch this broadcast..." (This tactic wasn't even done during the Simpson/Brown-Simpson case and that investigation/trial was highly publicized due to Simpson's celebrated status in American culture.) By doing this, Katz and investigators eradicated any presumption of innocence until proven guilty, which is Avery and Dassey Constitution Right.
ReplyDeleteSecond, Manitowoc County should not have been involved in any way in the investigation because they were being sued by Avery for $36M in a wrongful prosecution suit. This is a conflict of interest and should never be allowed in any criminal investigation. Period. The public was assured they were not involved, yet the documentary clearly shows this to be false. The thin blue line was ever-present here and there was 36-million reasons along with saving face to make sure Avery was convicted of a violent crime.
Third, regardless of the cat incident as a teenager - which is disturbing but not a sole indicator of future violence - Steven Avery was wrongfully prosecuted by the same Manitowoc Sheriff department - almost to the point of being framed (i.e. coping his mug shot and passing it off as the victim's description of her attacker.)
The documentary, while it left some evidence out, did bring to light what it wanted to about the case. It should inspire a new trials for both Avery and Dassey due to the mishandling by Katz, the investigators (Fassbender/Wiegert), Dassey first attorney (Len Kachinsky) and the Manitowoc County Sheriff's office (Lenk/Colburn/Peterson).
Additionally, the documentarians also did was provide evidence to viewers that anyone can be falsely accused and convicted of a crime - the judicial system is far from flawless, especially when it fails to uphold laws against crimes like perjury under oath or failure follow protocols for investigating crime scenes.
A pardon is inappropriate because if these two committed the crime then they should be incarcerated. A pardon would exonerate them completely from any punishment and negate a need for the new trials they deserve given the above.
Furthermore, given this is a state matter, it is up to Scott Walker to intervene not the POTUS. It's bad enough he weighs in on every shooting, we don't need to encourage his deity complex with our judicial process.