Warning: If you’re still watching Making a Murderer, be advised that this article contains spoilers.
STEVEN AVERY HAS filed a new motion to appeal his conviction for the 2005 murder of Teresa Halbach, court records show.
The subject of the popular Netflix documentary has taken his first legal action since the release of the show, arguing that a faulty search warrant and intimidation by a juror rendered his trial flawed.
In a motion written last Thursday, and filed with the Wisconsin Court of Appeals earlier this week, the 53-year-old claimed a juror named “CW” had intimidated other jurors with repeated declarations that “He is fucking guilty.”
This tainted the other jurors, through direct or indirect influence [and] deprived Avery of an impartial jury trial.
Avery has requested release on bond, arguing also that the first warrant to search his properties in 2005 was improperly filed.
Since the subsequent search was not lawful, he claims, any evidence gathered from it should not have been admissible at trial.
Evidence seized or used at trial is clearly “fruit of the poisonous tree.”
Well-known Chicago lawyer Kathleen Zellner and Tricia Bushnell, from the Mid-West Innocence Project announced last week that they would be providing Avery legal representation, boosting his many supporters’ hopes of an exoneration.
Avery’s latest motions, however, are filled with spelling and grammatical errors, and don’t appear to have been composed with the help of his new, high-powered legal team.
Zellner’s office could not be reached for comment tonight.
However, a statement sent to TheJournal.ie earlier this week said:
We are continuing to examine every aspect of Mr. Avery’s case and all of his legal options.
We are confident Mr. Avery’s conviction will be vacated when we present the new evidence and results of our work to the appropriate court.
Elsewhere, Avery’s one-time fiancée Jodi Stachowski has spoken out against him, calling him a “monster” and adding “He’s not innocent.”
Stachowski, who appears supportive of Avery in Making a Murderer, was speaking in an interview with the Nancy Grace show, which has run many reports tending to inculpate him.
Explaining why she now believes Avery is guilty of murdering Halbach, Stachowski said:
Because he threatened to kill me and my family and a friend of mine.
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