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UW Law School frees jailed man
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by Michelle Orris
Thursday, September 11, 2003
With the help of UW Law School staff and faculty, a man will be freed today who was charged in 1985 with attacking a female jogger.
Steven Avery, age 43, has served 18 years of a 32-year sentence for allegedly attacking a woman in Two Rivers, Wis., convicted by the testimony of one eyewitness.
He pleaded not guilty to the charges, and the UW-run Innocence Project confirmed his plea by lobbying for two years that Wisconsin detectives retest evidence collected from the crime scene for Avery’s DNA.
When the Wisconsin State Crime Laboratory tested hairs gathered from the crime scene, they found that the DNA did not match Avery’s and matched another man currently serving jail time for a similar crime committed in 1985.
Avery is the first individual released by a new Wisconsin law allowing lawyers to revisit evidence not previously tested for a criminals’ DNA.
UW law professor and attorney for the case Keith Findley worked with UW law students to seek the case’s revisitation.
“This case highlights, once again, that the criminal-justice system in this country, and in this state, is a flawed system, capable of making grievous mistakes,” Findley said in a statement released Wednesday. “Avery lost 18 years of his life that he will never be able to recover.”
