In an ironic twist of fate, Steven Avery was charged Tuesday with the grizzly murder of Teresa Halbach, a 25-year-old photographer from Green Bay. In charging Avery, investigators credited DNA evidence with helping them identify a suspect, the same type of evidence that helped free Avery after 18 years of incarceration for a crime he did not commit.
On Sept. 11, 2003 Avery was released from the Stanley Correctional Facility and reunited with his family after serving almost two decades in prison. Avery had been convicted for sexually assaulting and almost killing a young woman in 1986 based upon the testimony of a single eyewitness. Sixteen witnesses corroborated Avery's alibi of shopping, pouring concrete with his father and buying paint with his family, but a jury of his peers and an appeals court found him guilty anyway. While in prison, his wife divorced him and his five children grew up without a father.
Yet with the help of the Wisconsin Innocent Project, Avery was exonerated after DNA evidence showed a single hair on the victim belonged to another perpetrator, a man named Gregory Allen, who is serving a 60-year sentence for a string of sexual assaults. With a shaved head and flowing beard, Avery walked out a free man, having lost 18 years of his life in a prison cell.
State lawmakers had begun to finalize a bill that would have paid Avery $428,000 as compensation for his wrongful conviction. But not a single cent may find its way into Avery's hands after Friday's news.
Halbach had been assigned to take photographs for Auto Trader magazine on Avery's property. Sadly, she never made it home.
According to investigators, police found remains of a woman, pieces of clothing and what appeared to be a cell phone and camera, all of which had been burned, as well as handcuffs, leg irons, sexual devices and pornographic materials on Avery's property. Blood was also found in Avery's house and garage.
Though police initially arrested Avery on charges of illegally possessing a firearm, DNA evidence soon linked Avery to the crime. Avery's DNA was found in Halbach's bloody car and on the ignition key, which was found in his home. At the outset of the investigation, Avery had claimed he had never been inside the vehicle.
The exoneration of Avery in 2003 led to the creation of the Avery Task Force, which has made recommendations to the Legislature regarding reforms to the state criminal justice system.
The Avery case was also a major victory for the Wisconsin Innocence Project, which aims to overturn wrongful convictions using DNA evidence. UW law student Chris Ochoa, who was wrongfully convicted of killing a Texas woman, was the first person exonerated with the Project's help. He is now a member of the Project.
In a country that employs the death penalty as the ultimate form of punishment, DNA evidence is essential in every single execution case. More than 120 people in 25 states have been released from Death Row due to their innocence, according to the US House Judiciary Subcommittee on Civil and Constitutional Rights, and fourteen have been set free after DNA evidence cleared them of any wrongdoing.
In the wake of the Halbach murder, there have been grumblings within the Capitol that now is the time for Wisconsin to have a statewide referendum to decide if the death penalty should be reinstated. If such legislation is created, lawmakers must provide for DNA testing in every single death penalty case in Wisconsin. Such scientific techniques are essential in what amounts to a life and death matter. As the Avery case has shown, the use of DNA can lead to a joyous release from bondage or become the determining factor in charging an individual for a heinous, unspeakable crime.
Josh Moskowitz ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in political science and journalism.
