Finally finished the series earlier this evening. I wanted to avoid any discussions about it until I saw how things played out. Doing what I do for a living, I'm not at all surprised by the outcome. That's just the reality of the criminal justice system at this point.
Reading through the comments in this thread, though, one thing really jumps out at me:
Lots of you are saying things like, "Thanks for the warning about Wisconsin! Place is F'd. I'll steer clear!"
I hope everyone understands that the same kind of gross law enforcement misconduct occurs in communities across the country. And if anyone dares to question the powers that be, be it a defendant, an attorney, a media outlet, as one of the prosecutors said in the documentary: "He does so at his own peril."
To me, it was unethical for the prosecutor to make that kind of public comment about a pending case. More troubling, though, is that it doesn't require a huge leap in logic to interpret his comment as a threat against a participant in a legal proceeding, either Avery himself or his attorneys. If so, that would be constitute a felony under Wisconsin law or the law of any other state for that matter.
Regardless, this is the world we live in. Prosecutions aren't an even playing field, and prosecutors often abandon their ethical obligation to seek justice in favor of doing whatever necessary to secure a conviction. To me, this reality is the single biggest problem we have in our system today.
At the very least, I hope the story makes people realize that it's absolutely essential for our society to ensure that everyone, rich or poor, has adequate counsel when accused of a crime. When you're dealing with people who have the full resources of the government, it's never a fair fight. That's especially true when those same people insist that they "know" exactly what happened despite the circumstances, the evidence, and everything else right there in front of them.
I'll step down off my soap box, but I do want to take this opportunity to point out just how wrong Chief was a few years back in GYERO when we were talking about the kinds of compensation available to wrongfully convicted people. I think we were talking about a Dateline episode involving a guy from St. Louis. BBdK might remember. Anyway, it doesn't matter. He was completely wrong, per usual.
/gyeroneverforgets
The point is that, as you saw in this documentary, there's very little money out there in most states to people like Avery who are eventually exonerated. There are a few exceptions, like New York, but the vast majority of our country hasn't extended those same protections for a variety of reasons. And, for those same reasons, it's almost impossible to get any legislature to take action.
Like Avery's trial attorney said at one point in the documentary, you can only ever hope to get your liberty back. The rest? It's gone forever.
