Not so Fast Mr. Kratz
The grandstanding of the special prosecutor for the Teresa Halbach murder case, Kenneth Kratz, has been met by well-deserved public criticism. Defendant Steven Avery’s new attorney, Dean Strang, plans to request a gag order to keep Kratz from repeating his shenanigans. The gag order would apply to Kratz’s sidekick, Calumet County Sheriff Gerald Pagel, as well.
Kratz replied that there is no need. He claims that his preface to the March 2nd, news conference about innocent until proven guilty was sufficient to ensure justice. But, the small weight of his preface was lost in the lengthy and detailed allegations that followed.
He also claimed that he was justified to present his case publicly since Avery has publicly proclaimed his innocence on several occasions. Again, that hardly matches the amount of allegation that Kratz made. Since Kratz is an experienced attorney, how could he even start to compare his utterances to Avery’s. I note that since Avery has a new attorney he has ceased talking publicly.
Kratz also claims anti-prosecutor treatment in press and television but, this has little basis. After the hearing of 5 December, 2005, WGBA-TV in Green Bay, WI, noted among other things that testimony about the key for Teresa Halbach’s vehicle was found in plain sight. WGBA then played a clip of Kratz stating emphatically that the key was well hidden.
However, the next day, the comments on WGBA news were to the effect of probably guilty. Since then, that news team has been very prosecutor friendly.
All the arguments against a gag order just don’t work.
by Brian McCorkle
in category Steven Avery
