For profiles on several of the Wisconsin Innocence Project's cases, please click on the links below.
Steven Avery and Evan Zimmerman
Steven Avery
Steven Avery has recently been accused of the murder of Teresa Halbach, a 25-year-old woman who was reported missing on October 31. This event has shocked and saddened all who have worked at the Wisconsin Innocence Project, and our deepest sympathies go out to the family and friends of Ms. Halbach.
In the coming months, the criminal justice system will determine Avery's guilt or innocence in the Halbach case. The Wisconsin Innocence Project ordinarily does not represent criminal defendants at trial and is not representing Avery in the case. The Innocence Project investigates and works on cases involving wrongful convictions, and represented Avery in a case in which DNA evidence irrefutably proved that he was innocent. Avery, who spent 18 years in prison, was released after the Innocence Project got new DNA tests that conclusively excluded Avery and identified the true perpetrator of the crime. That case is described more fully below.
The criminal justice system is not perfect, and cases in which innocent people are convicted undermine the system and the public's trust. Minimizing the risk that innocent people will be convicted remains the goal of all in the criminal justice system, and the Wisconsin Innocence Project will continue to work on that important mission.
Steven Avery Exonerated after 18 Years in Prison
On July 29, 1985, Steven Avery spent the day with his family, first shopping in the morning, then helping to pour concrete at his father's home, then buying paint at a Shopko in Green Bay with his wife and five children in the late afternoon and early evening.
Late that same afternoon, a woman was brutally attacked, sexually assaulted, and nearly killed on a beach in Manitowoc County, Wisconsin.
Sixteen witnesses, including Avery's family and friends, a cement contractor, and clerks at Shopko, along with store receipts from Shopko, corroborated Avery's alibi. But the state didn't believe Avery or his 16 alibi witnesses. He was charged with and convicted of the brutal attack on that beach in Manitowoc County, based almost entirely on eyewitness identification testimony of a single witness. The state also presented microscopic hair examination evidence indicating that a hair found on Avery was "consistent" with the victim's hair. Avery was sentenced to 32 years in prison in March 1986.
Avery's conviction was affirmed by the Wisconsin Court of Appeals, and the Wisconsin Supreme Court denied discretionary review. Ten years later, in 1995, Avery sought DNA testing on fingernail scrapings taken from the victim immediately after the crime. Those tests revealed genetic markers consistent with both the victim and Avery, so that the laboratory could neither conclusively exclude Avery (on the off-chance that he and the victim shared those markers), nor identify him as the perpetrator. Those tests, however, also revealed DNA from another, unknown person, which could not have come from Avery. Despite this evidence of a third-party, the Wisconsin courts denied relief, holding that the DNA evidence was not sufficient to warrant a new trial.
In April 2002 the Wisconsin Innocence Project of the University of Wisconsin Law School obtained a court order, over the state's objection, under Wisconsin's postconviction DNA testing statute for new testing under newer, more powerful DNA technology. The Wisconsin Crime Laboratory succeeded in developing a PCR/STR profile from a pubic hair retrieved immediately after the assault from the victim's pubic hair combings. On September 10, 2003, the lab results were released, proving that Avery and his witnesses were telling the truth, that he was not at that beach on July 29, 1985, that he had nothing to do with the crime, and that the eyewitness was simply mistaken, as eyewitnesses often are. The DNA test conclusively excluded Avery as the source of the pubic hair, and also identified the true perpetrator of this crime, a man named Gregory Allen, who is currently serving a 60-year sentence in prison for sexual assaults committed after this one. Allen was matched to the DNA profile in this case through a search of the state and national DNA databases.
The very afternoon that the final results were in from the lab, on September 10, 2003, the new District Attorney stipulated that Avery is innocent and that he should be freed and the case dismissed. Later that same afternoon, the court signed an order officially exonerating Avery and ordering his immediate release. Shortly before 9:00 a.m. the next morning, September 11, 2003, Avery walked out of the Stanley Correctional Institution. He had served over 18 years in prison for a crime he did not commit.
When Avery was hauled off to prison he lost virtually everything. When he was arrested he had a wife and five children, a job, and a supportive extended family. His wife divorced him while he was in prison. When he walked out of prison, his children were all grown. Two of his children-twins-were less than a week old when he was imprisoned. When he was released, they were 18. He never had a chance to know those children.
Evan Zimmerman
Evan Zimmerman's Conviction Reversed
In 2000, Evan Zimmerman was charged with the first-degree murder of Kathy Thompson. Zimmerman and Thompson had dated, but the relationship ended nine months before the murder. On the night of her murder, Kathy Thompson had gotten married. At the reception at a local tavern, Thompson and her new husband had a fight, and her husband went home alone. Thompson arrived home later, the two fought again, and the police were called. Her husband, who was on probation, was held over night in jail. Thompson was released in the middle of the night and offered a ride home, but she decided to walk. A few hours later, in the early morning hours of February 27th, Thompson's body was found on Laurel Avenue in Eau Claire. She had been strangled.
At trial, the state theorized that after Thompson was released from jail, Zimmerman found her and strangled her. The state's case relied on expert medical testimony, hypnotically refreshed eyewitness testimony, and Zimmerman's statements to police, which the state portrayed as incriminatory. The jury convicted Zimmerman, and he was sentenced to life in prison.
The Wisconsin Innocence Project represented Zimmerman on appeal, alleging six grounds for reversal of his conviction, including insufficient evidence, ineffective assistance of counsel, and newly discovered evidence. (Read the brief).
The Wisconsin Court of Appeals reversed Zimmerman's conviction based on ineffective assistance of counsel. (Read the Court's opinion in PDF form).
On Thursday, April 28, 2005, Evan Zimmerman was officially and permanently cleared of any role in the 2000 murder of Eau Claire woman Kathy Thompson.