An Innocent Life Behind Bars
Would you spend your whole life after being tried and locked away for a crime you didn’t commit?
The answer is no, however, what choice do you have? In Steven Avery’s case, he didn’t have many. Although there are many theories to what really happened that day to Teresa Halbach, only one remains true.
In 1985, Steven was sentenced to 32 years in prison for first degree sexual assault and attempted murder. According to Innocence Project, after the jury deliberated for about four hours, they convicted Avery, and he then was sentenced to 32 years in prison. In 2002, the WIsconsin innocence project took Avery’s case and found a way to match the DNA with Gregory Alan. Alan was guilty of committing the crime, however, he was already serving 60 years in prison.
Steven Avery was released in 2003, after serving 18 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit. Avery’s case gained a lot of attention from the media because of the amount of time he was locked away when he was innocent. Steven then went on to file a $36 million lawsuit against the county. Later on, the “Avery Bill” was passed, which was renamed the “Criminal justice reforms bill” in 2005. The bill was passed to help prevent wrongful convictions.
After Steven’s life started to get back on track, someone named Teresa Halbach went missing on his property. Steven was also blamed shortly after for the murder of Teresa and was soon back in the same rut he got out of.
On October 31, 2005, Teresa was suppose to meet with Steven at his home to photograph his sister's minivan for an ad in “Auto Trader” Magazine. She went missing within in the same day.
After an investigation was ran, Avery was charged with the murder of Halbach because her car and burnt bone fragments were found on his property. Steven believed that authorities were trying to frame him for Halbach's case, which would then make it harder for him to win his case regarding the false sexual assault conviction. To make it look as if that was not what was happening, the Manitowoc County district attorney requested that authorities from the neighboring Calumet County to lead this investigation. Manitowoc County officials participated in searches of Avery's property, which is what led to the accusations of tampering with evidence.
Many questions were brought about when the police interrogated Avery’s nephew, Brendan Dassey. The interviews showed them almost telling Brendan what he did, which led him to believing it was true. Brendan was 16 years-old, has an IQ of 70, and a reading level of a 4th grader. Many question if the investigators caused Brendan to admit to a false crime. On March 2, 2006, Brendan was charged with helping first-degree intentional homicide, and also a first-degree sexual assault after confessing to investigators.Since then, Brendan’s attorneys have asked for him to be given another trial because his constitutional rights were violated due to an “involuntary confession.”
To this day, both Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey are still locked away. However, with all the public attention drawn to the case, people are working with Steven and Brendan to bring justice about. Many conspiracies and theories about what really happened to Teresa are talked about, but what really happened is still unknown to this day. Has Steven Avery spent his whole life battling with the law when he is truly innocent? Or does he have us all fooled?
