The family of Steven Avery have confirmed that Kathleen Zellner would be taking on his case and said they were
confident she could set him free.
Chicago-based Kathleen Zellner will work with Midwest
Innocence Project to represent Avery in pending criminal matters.
Earlier this week, one of Avery's former defense attorneys,
Dean Strang, said that he could possibly represent Avery again. Avery has had
no lawyer since his last appeal failed.
But Zellner has said she will be taking 'full and complete
representation' of the 53 year old.
Speaking from her home in Two Rivers, Wisconsin, his mother,
Dolores Avery, praised the Chicago-based attorney as she continued to assert
her son’s innocence after he was sentenced to life without parole for the
murder of Teresa Halbach in 2005.
The 78 year old said: ‘She's supposed to be really, really
good.
Another source close to the family told Daily Mail Online:
‘I know this lawyer will do a good job, I know she will.
‘She has got 18 post-conviction victories and that’s the
kind of person we need. We’re on a time limit here. I feel so strongly about
her. She’s the one that’s going to get him out.
Zellner's law firm released a statement about taking over
the case on Friday evening.
'The Law Firm of Kathleen T Zellner and Associates PC is
pleased to announce that it will be assuming the full and complete
representation of Steven Avery in all of his pending criminal matters,' the
statement read.
It continued: 'Ms Zellner's firm will be assisted by local
Wisconsin counsel Tricia Bushnell. Ms
Bushnell is the Legal Director of the
Midwest Innocence Project. The Zellner Law Firm is looking forward to adding Mr
Avery to its long list of wrongful conviction exonerations.
Zellner has previously freed wrongly convicted prisoners,
including Mario Casciaro who was found guilty in the 2002 killing of grocery
store co-worker Brian Carrick during a 2013 trail.
Dolores Avery, 78, addressed the issue for the first time after Steven Avery filed legal documents in 2009
suggesting his brothers' involvement.
In court papers, Steven Avery, who had just been sentenced
to life without parole, claimed that his two brothers, Charles and Earl Avery
may have murdered the 25-year-old photographer whose last known whereabouts
were a visit to the family's auto salvage yard on October 31, 2005. The legal
documents were originally obtained by TMZ.
When asked about Steven's 2009 filing and the potential
involvement of her other sons, Dolores sprang to the
defense of all three.
She said that Steven may have been extremely desperate about
being sent back to prison after he was freed in 2003 on DNA evidence following
18 years in jail for a rape he did not commit.
She said: 'He wrote that [legal document] when he was
prison, maybe he felt he had to do something. But it wasn't anything to do with
them [Earl and Charles Avery].
She has watched the entire Netflix series and said that
although the attention has been difficult for the family to cope with, she was
pleased to have taken part in the documentary.
Avery, 53, is currently serving life without the possibility
of parole for the murder of Miss Halbach in 2005.
His nephew Brendan Dassey, then 16, was also found guilty of
her murder and sexual assault, and sentenced to life in prison with the
possibility of early release in 2048.
Both men claim that they are innocent. Dolores told Daily
Mail Online: '[The series] better make a difference.
I think Steven will get a new trial. I don't know what it
will take but I hope it comes out with the truth instead of a bunch of lies.'
Steven Avery had initially served 18 years for rape before
being exonerated by DNA evidence in 2003.
Two years later, while Avery was suing Manitowoc County for
$36million over wrongful imprisonment, he was arrested for the murder of Miss
Halbach, whose last known whereabouts were a visit to the family's auto salvage
yard on October 31.
Avery's story is the subject of a ten-episode series,
released last month, which has captivated viewers around the world.
Jerry Buting, who defended Avery in his murder trial, has
said that the hit 10-part series has sparked an ‘enormous outpouring of
support’.
As a result, scientists from all over have contacted him to
suggest different ways that evidence can be presented to ‘demonstrate the
innocence’ of the show’s subject.
However, all of Avery’s appeals are over and despite
petitions demanding his release, Buting says the only way to free him would be
with newly discovered evidence.
‘He is still in prison. He’s in prison for life. His appeals
are over,’ Buting told BBC’s Today. ‘Which means that if he is to have any
justice at this point it’s going to have to be because of newly discovered
evidence, things of that sort.’
But he added: ‘There is something that can be done about it.
We are getting an enormous outpouring of support. We’re getting new leads –
factual leads that can be followed up.
‘Scientists from all over the world have been contacting us
with different approaches to present scientific evidence that can be newly
discovered evidence that would demonstrate his innocence.
Buting and his fellow defense attorney Dean Strang are
presented as the unrelenting protagonists on the series, working to prove that
Avery was framed for the murder of 25-year-old photographer Teresa Halbach in
Manitowoc County, Wisconsin, in 2005.
However, authorities involved in the case insist the series
is biased and omits crucial facts that led to Avery and Dassey being found
guilty of Halbach’s murder in 2007.
Filmmakers Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos have stood by
their work, which spans ten years and largely focuses on the defense and the
perspective of Avery and Dassey’s family.
Buting too insists that the filmmakers were fair in their portrayal
of the case.
Commenting on claims the series leaves out key evidence, he
told the BBC’s Today program: ‘Well that’s not true at all. They offered the
same opportunity to the State to participate and they chose not to.
‘They included the majority of the State’s case the
important pieces are in the movie.’
He added: ‘There’s really only one tiny bit of DNA evidence
that ever linked her to his residence or his garage and that was a contaminated
test that frankly should have been thrown out. That’s clearly set forth in the
series.’
Ken Kratz, the former Calumet County district attorney who
prosecuted Avery, is one of the series’ critics, saying Netflix should not have
billed the series as a documentary.
More than 100,000 people have signed an online petition for
Avery and Dassey to be exonerated although Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker
stated on Wednesday that they will not be pardoned.
The White House yesterday turned down a similar petition on
the grounds that presidential clemency powers only apply to federal prisoners.
Dolores does not think there is chance for her son to be
treated fairly in Manitowoc County.
'He won't get a fair trial around here, if he gets one.
Somebody said that it could be in Texas, that's a way from here,' she said.
The renewed interest in Steven's case, which has gone past
the point of his last appeal, has also reignited a spark of hope in him,
according to his mother.
She said: 'I think he's happy and I hope that he's going to
be getting out. Steven gets a lot of letters now and I think Brendan is getting
them too.'
Dolores, who has received cards and flowers from as far as
Spain, said that she hoped the documentary might change local opinions.
She said: 'In the town everyone looks at you but they don't
say anything. People are being kind, better than they were before.
'Before a lot of people looked at you or else they said
something. I always told them, my son and my grandson are innocent.'
She shared early memories of Steven with our reporter at her home, filled with family photographs. 'He was just a boy – boys ain't
all angels, you know.
'He was okay, he used to work on cars and cleaning up the
garage here. That whole garage he used to work on when it needed cleaning, he
didn't like it all messy.'
The 78-year-old said that her son wasn't much into partying
'not any more than any other kid'.
Dolores believes the police have had a grudge against him
since he was a teenager.
'They are crooked people those cops in Manitowoc - and in
Calumet [county] I heard too.'
She hopes that investigators will reopen the Teresa Halbach
murder case.
I wish they would find the person,' she said. She believes
that her son had been framed for Miss Halbach's murder.
'I don't know [who is behind this], the cops I bet,' she
said.
She spoke scathingly of Ken Kratz, the district attorney
drafted in from Calumet County by
Manitowoc County to prosecute Steven in order
to quash any suggestion of bias.
'He was just as crooked as the rest,' she added.
The 78-year-old said she didn't remember much from the day
that Teresa Halbach visited the family's auto salvage yard in order to
photograph a minivan for AutoTrader magazine.
'I don't remember it much,' Dolores said. 'She was here but
then she left, that's what I know. They say her brother [Michael Halbach] might
have had something to do with it.'
Teresa Halbach was reported missing on November 3, 2005, and
police focused on Steven Avery, believed to be the last person to see her
alive.
For nine days, Wanitowoc and Calumet County Sheriff's
Department searched the Avery property along with teams of volunteers which
included Teresa's immediate family.
The Avery family were forced to move to their cabin 90 miles
away.
Dolores said: 'My Medicare medicine was left behind on the
kitchen table, I couldn't even come back and get it.
'The Manitowoc Sheriff's Department told me to go to the
doctor again but I said I can't go again, I was just there. After a while, they
got it for me.
They were in my whole house, the basement, everywhere. I
think all of them [police and volunteer searchers] were all over.
'They took my sheets off the bed, good thing I had another
pair of new ones. I couldn't tell you if anything went missing from the house.'
She added: 'We never knew what was going on. We couldn't
come back home for eight days.'
Dolores doesn't believe that the police interviewed anyone
other than Steven.
'They said they had him, so that's how it went,' she said.
On November 8, Teresa Halbach's car key was found in Steven
Avery's bedroom along with her car and charred bones found at the salvage yard.
None of Halbach's DNA was ever discovered inside of Avery's
home, where the prosecution claimed she was tied to the bed, raped, stabbed and
shot in the head.
On November 11, Avery was charged with murder and has been
behind bars ever since.
Dolores described an incident which left her frightened soon
after her son's arrest.
She said: 'I was in the living room one night at nine
o'clock and the squad car was out there with a spotlight on, shining in my
patio door, when I was sitting in my nightgown. They [the police] are
troublemakers.
Steven Avery's trailer, a short distance from his parents'
home, still lies empty.
Dolores said: 'They ripped Steven's whole house apart. They
ripped the walls apart and the bed. No one could live there, the plumbing is
all frozen up and broken. It's a piece of junk now.'
The auto salvage yard also lies quiet with the number of
customers dwindling since Steven was arrested a decade ago.
Dolores said: 'Things are not so good with the business, it
has slowed way down compared to what it was before Steven was arrested.
Maybe some believe in that stuff that he's guilty - but he's
not.'
Most of the family have rallied around each other. 'They are
all coping alright I think,' Dolores said. 'But it depends on who they are
though.
'Maybe they don't want to talk to the outside world but we
always talk.'
Dolores said she and her husband Allan, 80, remain in good
health despite the strain of Steven's conviction.
She said: 'I'm pretty good but I've got to be, I suppose.
Allan is okay but he hates what's going on with Manitowoc
County. They are so crooked.
Recently, Dolores and Allan have not seen their grandson,
Brendan, because it is difficult for them to get up the stairs at Green Bay
Correctional Facility where he is serving his life sentence.
Dolores believes Brendan, now 26, is coping fairly well and
had completed his high school diploma while in jail.
But she shared her concerns for her daughter, Barbara
Tadych, Brendan's mother.
Dolores said: 'Brendan is doing pretty good compared to his
Ma. He was only 16 and now he's 20-something already.
Making A Murderer casts doubt on Dassey's testimony during
the trial. He was 16 at the time and told authorities that he helped his uncle
commit the murder.
Dassey, who reads at a fourth grade level, told police he
helped Avery rape, stab, shoot and dismember Halbach.
Dassey confessed to sexually assaulting Halbach and cutting
her throat on his uncle's orders. He later said the confession was coerced.
Dolores said that her grandson was angry about how he had
been treated by the judicial system.
'I think he knows now what happened,' she said. 'He was a
young kid, a tiny kid, and he isn't anymore.
'He was always very quiet. He used to sit here and play the
Nintendo.'
A lawsuit for Dassey has been taken to federal court in
Wisconsin by Northwestern University's Center on Wrongful Convictions of Youth.
The suit claims that Dassey was illegally imprisoned in 2005
and asks that Dassey be granted a writ of Habeas corpus, meaning his case must
be re-examined.
A decision is likely to be made in the next year.
Dolores said: 'Brendan's got a lawyer for that now. He has a
chance and I hope it gives Barb hope.'
Meanwhile, she and her husband continue to regularly visit
Steven at Waupun Correctional Institute, a 180-mile round trip from their home.
Dolores said: 'It's much closer than the other prisons he
has been in. We get up once every week and a half, depending on the roads now.
'We used to drive all the way to Tennessee. We used to leave
on Friday morning and stay until Sunday. We went once every two months or so.
We were younger then.
'We can hug him but only when we get there and when we
leave. I suppose all the prisons are like that.
Avery, who has an IQ of 70, has spent a number of years
studying his case in the prison's law library after the failure of his Supreme
Court appeal meant he was left without a lawyer.
Last year, Avery petitioned the circuit court without an
attorney but the motions were denied in November.
Dolores said: 'He's studying his own case, I think he'd be a
better lawyer than the lawyers are. Some of his lawyers have been no good.
'He reads his scripts to see what he can do and goes to the
library.'
Avery's parents often visit with Steven's girlfriend, Sandra
Greenman, who initially came into contact with him after writing a letter of
support when he was convicted in 2007.
After a total of 25 years in prison, Steven Avery continues
his fight to be freed as an innocent man.
His mother remains similarly
unwavering in her belief in her son.
She said: 'I hope that Steven gets out. Both Steven and
Brendan. They are 100 per cent innocent.
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