Court Rulings Week Ending 16 December 2006
Two hearings were held in the Week ending 16 December, 2006 about issues in the upcoming murder trials of Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey.
Steven Avery on 12 December, 2006 before Judge Patrick Wills
Judge Willis denied a request to suppress statements made to Marinette County Deputies after Avery’s attorney in his civil suit instructed them to stop the questions. The traffic stops and the confiscation of Avery’s vehicle were conducted at the request of the State and Calumet County. So were the police required to stop questioning after an attorney conveyed instructions to cease? Apparently not according to the judge.
The judge denied the request to suppress evidence seized from Avery’s mobile home and detached garage. The same search warrant was used repeatedly over an extended period. Is there an implied time limit for search warrants? Or, do they simply not expire?
He also denied the request to suppress tapes of jail telephone recordings and visit conversations. There are some implications of discrimination here that can make for interesting challenges to the use of recordings and snitches. However, the Wisconsin Supreme Court has held that such recordings are legal.
The use of these recordings, as well as statements by jail house informants, are the consequences of the inability to pay the bail and does discriminate against the indigent. Also, important is how the recorded statements are interpreted. During the wrongful incarceration of Avery, the Court of Appeals referred* to a statement, as quoted by a deputy, made by Avery as powerful evidence of his guilt. However, it was not evidence of guilt and the claim was problematical because the interpretation of the statement became institutionalized and took on meaning that was never present. Rather the quoted statement has been used as confirmation bias.
Willis suppressed what has been called pornographic evidence since the prosecutor was seeking bondage material and a Penthouse Magazine did not qualify. Early in the case, the PR from investigators was that were searching for pornography and found pornography. However, that was misleading and an attempt to undermine the defense.
Brendan Dassey on 15 December, 2006, before Judge Jerome Fox
Judge Fox refused to allow rehearing of the preliminary hearing regarding Dassey’s waiver into adult court. At issue was the claim that Dassey’s original attorney did not attempt to have Dassey tried as a juvenile. Dassey agreed in court to the waiver, but he states that he first met with this attorney only a short time before the hearing and relied upon the attorney’s advice to say he understood when in reality he did not. This attorney, Ralph Sczygelski, was allowed to withdraw for conflict of interest.
Fox allowed the various confessions and statements made by Dassey. This includes one session when Dassey’s then attorney, Len Kachinsky, was absent from the session. Kachinsky was allowed to withdraw after being decertified by the Wisconsin Office of the State Public Defender.
Prosecutor Ken Kratz noted that the State was a very low burden of proof to bring a defendant to trial and suggested that the issues were better suited for post conviction activity.
But, Wisconsin courts appear very reluctant to consider issues after conviction. And, as mentioned above are prone to interpret supposed evidence in a way to keep citizens in prison.
The judge granted the defense request for a jury to be selected from outside Manitowoc County with the trial the conducted within the county.
After the hearing Dassey’s attorney Mark Fremgen stated that he does not expect to accept any plea bargains. Dassey’s prior attorney mentioned possible plea deals several times.
I can understand the need to keep a schedule for the upcoming trials and to avoid revisiting old issues. Yet, there are issues that will need to be addressed. I hope that the defense attorneys are aggressive in defending their clients and will make the prosecution defend the actions and behaviors of the investigators. There were some rather slippery behaviors involved.
I also suspect that if only half of the information contained in the Dassey confessions were true, plea bargains would already be in place and there would be no trials.
in category Brendan Dassey,Steven Avery
