Wisconsin Supreme Court denies review of Steven Avery's latest appeal
The state's highest court issued the decision May 21. Avery's attorney, Kathleen Zellner, said in a post on X that the denial was "expected." The state Supreme Court denied Avery's petition for review for previous appeal attempts in 2011 and 2021.
Avery's next step will be to file a petition in federal court — the first time Avery has done so, Zellner told USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin.
"Two things are certain at this point: (1) Steven Avery will never give up on proving his actual innocence. (2) Steven Avery's legal team is more dedicated to winning his freedom than ever before," Zellner said in an email.
Avery, 62, is serving a life sentence with no possibility of parole for the murder of Teresa Halbach, a 25-year-old woman from the Calumet County community of St. John. Halbach, who worked as a photographer, went missing after going to the Avery family's auto salvage yard near Two Rivers to take pictures of vehicles on a work assignment on Halloween 2005.
Avery and his teenage nephew Brendan Dassey were arrested and convicted of Halbach's murder after trials in 2007.
The Manitowoc County case gained international attention after the 2015 premiere of the Netflix docuseries "Making a Murderer," which spotlights arguments made by Avery's trial attorneys: that Avery may have been framed by the Manitowoc County Sheriff's Office, as it stood to lose millions to Avery in a lawsuit for a wrongful conviction for which he served 18 years in prison.
Avery was wrongfully convicted of a sexual assault in 1985 and released from prison in 2003, after DNA evidence pinned the assault on a different man. He had been a free man for just over two years when he was arrested for Halbach's murder.
Avery has pursued numerous appeals over the years. His latest appeal, a third motion for post-conviction relief filed in August 2022, asserts that a different man killed Halbach, then framed Avery and was a key witness against him at trial.
Sheboygan County Circuit Court Judge Angela Sutkiewicz, who was presiding over the case at that time, denied the motion in August 2023. Avery then appealed that ruling to the Wisconsin Court of Appeals, which issued a decision in January siding with Sutkiewicz. A panel of three judges from the Wisconsin Court of Appeals District II stated that Avery's motion was "insufficiently pled" and that there was not adequate evidence to warrant an evidentiary hearing.
Avery's attorneys then petitioned the Wisconsin Supreme Court to review the case in February. The Wisconsin attorney general then filed a response, arguing a review by the state Supreme Court would be a "waste" of the court's "scarce time and resources."
RELATED: Wisconsin Supreme Court dismisses letter from Steven Avery; no decision yet on review
RELATED: Court of Appeals denies Steven Avery's latest appeal, will not grant evidentiary hearing
RELATED: Nearing 20 years since Teresa Halbach's murder, Steven Avery continues appeal efforts
In March, while awaiting a decision, Avery sent a letter to the state Supreme Court without help or advice from his legal team. In the letter, Avery wrote that he is "a victim of a setup" that "has to be fixed now."
The Wisconsin Supreme Court then indicated in the court record that it would not take Avery's letter into account in its decision, because "Mr. Avery is not entitled to hybrid representation in which both he and counsel present arguments to the court."
Contact Kelli Arseneau at 920-213-3721 or karseneau@gannett.com. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter, at @ArseneauKelli.
This article originally appeared on Appleton Post-Crescent: Wisconsin Supreme Court won't review Steven Avery's latest appeal
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