Monday, January 18, 2016

Framing Steven Avery



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Making a Murderer follows Steven Avery who is wrongly charged with raping Penny Bernsteen. As I watched the first episode there was a lot that popped out at me. The most surprising is that there was the Morris Family. The Morris family, specifically Sandra, had it out for Steven. Sandra would spread rumors of Steve masturbating outside and having sex with his wife, Lori outside for the whole world to see. Steven was not the brightest fellow. Steven thought he could make Sandra stop spreading these lies by flagging her car down and walking up to her with empty gun. Although, at the time Steven thought this would be the right way to go about it, it was not. Sandra's husband was Sheriff in their town and the incident was blown out of proportion.
The Morris family really wanted to ruin Steven's life. I think there must have been more to the story than presented. There had to be a reason that Sandra would turn against her own cousin. I understand that the Avery family was frowned upon but it still does not make any sense as to why someone would hate another person so much.
Yet this hatred for Steven was at the core of the problem. The hatred led to all the false accusations. Sandra Morris was not a reliable source. She was spreading rumors and took the situation to the extreme. While the Police Department run by her husband ran with it. By the time the Police Department was done, they made it seem like a felony. This is an issue because people with power are using it for their own personal agenda.
When Judy, the deputy and friend of Sandra, went to interview Penny, the rape victim, she went with the idea that it was Steven Avery. And the rest is history. Judy was suggestive to Penny, as was the rest of the Police Department. They wanted to pin it on Steven. The sketch artist is said to have drawn the perpetrator from Steven's old mugshot. When they brought Steven in, they quarantined him off and did not give him a phone call or attorney. This is all illegal. The Police Department is not allowed to be suggestive and they are not allowed treat suspects in such a manner. 
The part that struct me as most memorable was the evidence. The evidenced used to pin the crime on Steven Avery was nonexistent. There were twenty-two witnesses supporting Steven Avery's alibi and they were all dismissed because they were "fabricating" it. Twenty-two people all had the same story and it was thrown to the side. There were officers from another district saying they had a suspect, Gregory Allen, who was most likely the perpetrator and the Sheriff ignored them. People went to the District Attorney and he too sent them away.
Steven in the past had committed crimes, but he had always owned up to them. Steven always paid the fines and time. For the rape, Steven did not change. He continued to be the honest man and claimed to be not guilty, even though that meant he would have to stay till his MR (Mandatory Release Date) with shot at parole. Steven was in jail for eighteen years, serving time for a crime he did not commit. Steven saw people who had actually murdered released before him. Steven appealed to court saying that the DNA had a third allele that was not identified to him or Penny. Unfortunately the court said that was not sufficient enough. When DNA technology had advanced enough to be able to pin who did it, it was found that Steven's DNA was not on the crime scene but rather Gregory Allen's was. This time Steven was released. The evidence surrounding this case was the most interesting because to get anywhere, there has to be convincing evidence and I feel like jobs were not done right. Evidence was spun to make it seem like it had been Steven and anything saying otherwise was ignored. As someone who has taken a handful of Criminal Justice courses in college, I do not understand how no one stood up in the police department and said wait-this is unethical and we are letting the true perpetrator get away. It is suppose to be innocent until proven guilty, but in Steven's case it was guilty until proven innocent.
Steven's situation had brought some heat for the Police Department. The district was investigated by the new district attorney and was found not guilty of doing anything wrong. So Steven did what anyone in his situation who was wrong could do. He filed a civil law suit against the Police Department of thirty-six million dollars. He did not want the money, rather the attention so that people would see how the police had wronged him.  
This problem is rare in my opinion now that technology is so advanced. However, since the technology is new we must revisit cases similar to this one. Through talking about it on social media, friends, and family we are able to bring to light the wrong doing of the Police who are more concerned with their own agendas. Not all situations are the same as this one. So we must keep in mind that not all officers are out to get us. Through raising our voice and opinions we will bring the situations to light. The innocent should not serve for the guilty.

1 comment:

  1. Victoria, what an excellent post! I thought similarly to you in regard to most of your points. I too could not understand the lack of ethical action and integrity by the district attorney and the police department involved with Steven Avery's case. Further, you make a very strong statement when you explained that in Avery's case he was guilty until proven innocent instead of innocent until proven guilty. When something like this happens in the field of law enforcement I think we need to find a way to provide more attention to the field in order to fix said problem.

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