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Armchair sleuths hooked on the case of who killed Teresa Halbach may see new theories tested in court, with the accused at the centre of Netflix documentary Making A Murderer granted an appeal motion.
Key points:
- Steven Avery’s lawyer Kathleen Zellner says it is a big win for her client, jailed in 2007 for the murder he claims he did not commit
- The circuit court could grant a new trial, or send it back to an appellate court which could then reverse the conviction or grant a new trial
- If the case results in a new trial, evidence that has come to light since the first trial could be tested, including information on Avery’s lawyer’s lead suspect
Steven Avery will have his case re-examined by a Wisconsin circuit court after his lawyer Kathleen Zellner won a motion to appeal his conviction.
Avery was sentenced to life in prison in 2007 for Halbach’s murder, and his nephew Brendan Dassey was also jailed in a separate trial after confessing to helping Avery rape and kill the freelance photographer at the family scrap yard.
The investigation and both men’s trials were the focus of a true-crime series filmed over 10 years, and since its release in 2015 there has been widespread conjecture about the pair’s innocence.
The documentary called into particular question the handling of the case by law enforcement officials in Manitowoc County.
The lawyers representing Avery in his first trial have always maintained the state’s case did not add up, and hoped new DNA testing methods would lead to a fresh trial for Avery.
After season one aired in 2015, Avery retained a new lawyer, Ms Zellner, who has made a career out of reversing wrongful convictions in the criminal justice system.
Her theory that Avery was framed for Halbach’s murder was laid out in a second season of the show.
Ms Zellner filed a motion to appeal her client’s conviction based on a collection of possible human bones, alleged to have belonged to Halbach, that she argued had never been tested for DNA.
According to a letter submitted to the Wisconsin Court of Appeals on February 13, “previously undisclosed ledger sheets” indicated the bones in question were returned to the Halbach family, which Ms Zellner argued violated her client’s rights.
The decision to grant Avery an appeal means the circumstances surrounding the bones could be argued in the circuit court, and according to Ms Zellner, could result in a new trial.
Ms Zellner told Newsweek it was a big win for Avery’s case.
“The case is being remanded back to the circuit court to conduct proceedings, which can include a hearing,” she explained.
“The circuit court can grant a new trial, or if not, back to appellate court who can reverse the conviction and/or grant a new trial.
“Either way, the state opposed this motion and lost. This evidence has the potential to undo the whole case, so it is a big win.”
A new trial would mean Avery’s legal team could present new evidence discovered since the first trial, including a bullet found in Avery’s garage, blood splatter from Halbach’s car, and a collection of evidence not seen in the second season of Making A Murderer that Ms Zellner told Newsweek included information on her lead suspect Bobby Dassey, who is Brendan Dassey’s brother.
If Avery were to be granted a new trial and have his conviction overturned, it would be the second time he has served an extended prison sentence for a crime he did not commit.
Two years before he was arrested in relation to Halbach’s death, he was exonerated for a violent rape and released from prison after spending 18 years behind bars.
Avery’s nephew and co-accused in the Halbach case, Brendan Dassey, remains in prison despite a magistrate overturning his guilty verdict in 2016 by ruling that his confession had been coerced.
Dassey’s lawyers had argued that their client, who was 16 at the time of the crime, had a learning disability and that police took advantage of his cognitive problems and his age.
That court’s decision was overturned by the federal appeals court on the grounds that Dassey confessed voluntarily and with his mother’s permission.
In June 2018, the US Supreme Court decided not to hear Dassey’s case.
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