Defence attorney Kathleen Zellner has filed a motion officially accusing investigators of framing Steven Avery for the murder of Teresa Halbach.
Zellner is demanding access to evidence that investigators in Manitowoc County planted the evidence that led to both Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey being convicted of the murder of photographer Teresa Halbach on 31 October 2005.
“Mr. Avery has already completed a series of tests that will conclusively establish his innocence,” Zellner wrote in the motion, which she hopes will lead to his release, following the decision to overturn Dassey’s conviction by a federal judge earlier this month.
“Mr. Avery is requesting, and is willing to pay for, the most comprehensive, thorough, and advanced forensic testing ever requested by a criminal defendant in the State of Wisconsin,” Zellner says in her ‘Motion for Post-Conviction Scientific Testing,’ filed on Friday afternoon.
The biggest bombshell in the motion is the revelation that Halbach’s car was seized on 3 November 2005 – this is two days before it was officially found.
“That was a huge discovery because the car doesn’t appear on the Avery property until November 5,” Zellner told Newsweek.
“It’s a problem when some of [the investigators] are planting evidence and others are honestly doing their job and documenting their malfeasance.”
This is how Zellner believes Avery was framed.
“Ms. Halbach’s vehicle was moved from the Fred Radandt Sons, Inc. quarry to the Avery property using the conveyor road that led onto the Avery property from the quarry,” the motion states.
“Mr. Avery contends that the blood evidence was planted in Ms. Halbach’s car, by law enforcement, prior to the discovery of the vehicle on the Avery property on November 5, 2005.”
The motion claims that two ‘non-law enforcement people’ entered the Avery property after it was closed to the public, and those two individuals lied to investigators about seeing a fire on the Avery property and details regarding Halbach’s car.
Zellner is also seeking many pieces of DNA evidence so they can be tested using more modern technologies than were available a decade ago.
“Since 2007, more sensitive forensic DNA techniques have been developed that can recover sufficient DNA for profiling from…fingerprints,” states the motion, “If the unidentified fingerprints on the victim’s vehicle match either Officer [Andrew] Colborn or Officer [James] Lenk, it would be significant evidence of their involvement in moving the victim’s vehicle onto the Avery property.”
The motion calls for Lenk and Colborn to provide their fingerprints. They have denied any wrongdoing.
“No guilty person would ever allow such extensive testing to be done,” Zellner said on Friday
“The fact that Mr. Avery has agreed to all this testing is further proof he’s actually innocent of these crimes.”
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