Last November, Wisconsin officials overturned a federal judge’s order to release Brendan Dassey, a subject in the Netflix documentary series Making a Murderer who, along with uncle Steven Avery, was convicted in 2007 for the 2005 murder of photographer Teresa Halbach. Today, Avery’s attorney, Katherine Zellner, released a 1,272-page motion that essentially singles out Halbach’s ex-boyfriend as a suspect in her murder, the A.V. Club reports via WBAY.
Avery is serving a life sentence for the murder of Halbach. Dassey was convicted in a separate trial and confessed to assisting his uncle in Halbach’s rape and murder. Last year, Avery’s previous attorneys, Dean Strang and Jerome Buting, told the A.V. Club they thought Dassey had a much higher likelihood of freedom than Avery, but Zellner’s new motion may shift the odds.
Zellner bases her current argument on ethical violations by prosecutor Ken Kratz and ineffective counsel from Strang and Buting, whom she claims failed to put expert witnesses on the stand to discuss DNA and blood spatter evidence. Her website boasts that she’s righted more wrongful convictions than any private attorney in America.
Although Zellner never directly accuses Halbach’s ex-boyfriend of her murder, she notes that he was never eliminated as a suspect and Avery’s jury never heard evidence on him.
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WBAY reports that Strang and Buting have declined to comment on the case until they can read Zellner’s motion in full.
H/T the A.V. Club