The Justice System: Steve Avery And Dassey

The Justice System

“Poor people lose. Poor people lose all the time.” The words of a broken man taken from his loved ones and the life he had made for himself. The ongoing suspense of the Steve Avery and Brendan Dassey case have been a topic of conversation for a long period. Many questions how the investigation throughout the case were carried out. This creates an overall question is the American justice system crooked. Although many disagree with Avery and Dassey’s verdicts many agree and that the right decision the court / justice made. Yet, we have an investigation, where two disposed police could investigate and carry out test on pivotal pieces of evidence against a man in which the reason they were disposed. These officers were not

accounted for in certain situations which makes it hard to accept the verdict. The initial idea introduced at the beginning of this case was that these deposed officers had nothing to do with the ongoing investigation which came to be totally incorrect there for making certain evidence questionable but not enough for the jury. These two cases are made up of false confessions and unfair judgement which play out but not enough for anyone to notice at the time. These cases and may other cases that don’t receive as much recognition bring to light the systematic lies and betrayal in and throughout cases from the upper echelon of court systems that make up the justice system of America.

The case of Steve Avery weighed heavenly on the words of his learning- disabled nephew.

The justice system in America has a faint history of false confessions and forced confessions. In this case, they used a learning-disabled teen who had no initial idea to what was happening to him. In the initial scenes in episode four (21:05-22:30) shows how the detectives coerce Brendan Dassey which leads to a false confession. Fassender and Wiegert question Dassey (who by the way is without his lawyer) for 3 ½ hours. Fassender and Wiegert threaten Dassey with his mom even saying “You think your mom would be ok with that” referring to him as lying to him. They eventually throw out topics in which Dassey responds and gives them what they wanted to hear. The justice system is constantly uses this system of threatening which in return hurt the witness /alibi and the people around them. In Brenden Dassey’s situation, he admits to telling lies to because he didn’t know what was happening to him. In the initial scenes (36:58-38:26) in a phone call he admits to not knowing anything about the death of Teressa Halbach. Brendan Dassey says that he “guessed” because the kept egging at him for something he didn’t know. “Guessing” a sixteen-year-old life ended just guessing because he had coincidentally seen his uncle on a night that was highly

questionable.

Evidence is a key in cases such as cases as the murder of Terresa Halbach, however as in this case and other cases evidence has often been misused. Steve Avery was a common name was a common name in his hometown Manitowoc, county and when he was let go for misuse of evidence in 2004, It only took one thing to prosecute this man who they wanted to totally obliterate. When Teressa car was found on the Avery property a call made between a Manitowoc county sheriff and the call center which the sheriff says “Avery’s in custody correct”. The fact that Avery was never given an opportunity to defend himself nor did they have any right to just take him away because there was not any notion of an arrest warrant. The Documenter in the initial scenes in the 5th episode (30:52 -32:13) analyses the Key of Teressa Halbach that which was found in Avery’s bedroom 3 weeks after the start of the investigation nearly the end. This key only had the DNA of Steve Avery, however this key was used every day by Terresa Halbach, why was Steve's DNA the only one found? This key was found by Shieff Lenk the same sheriff who were diposed a few weeks before the investigation took off, yet he found. The key found close relates to the letter found in Adnan’s room in the podcast Serial where officers found a letter in which “Adnan” supposedly wrote “I’m going to kill” just because he wrote in pen. In these situations, this evidence inadvertently happened to end up in a place where they wanted them too.

In many murder cases as presented in Making a Murderer when a person is murdered they usually look at the close people around a victim to get leads. In the initial scenes (38:49-39:20) Jerry Butting Stevens lawyer questions Fassender a detective in trail about how a detective were supposed to come about a suspect. Fassender admits that the right thing to do is to look to the people closest to the victim because they are more than likely the murderer. In the scenes episode five (42: 56 – 46:10) Fassender words are countermanded by the ex-boyfriend of Terresa and shows the crookedness if this investigation. The ex-boyfriend states not only that he and the roommate of Teresa that never reported her missing after three days and interviewed in the same room, however they were never looked to as suspects and were given checkpoints and formed into a search party onto the property that was supposedly of limits to the “general population”. Not only this but a camera that was given to Pam Struan was the only Camera given to anyone t during the search and this camera was given by the roommate of Terresa who was never looked at or even questioned. This camera was questioned by the lawyers of Steven Avery because it seemed to have a pattern, how can a person give only one person a camera and they find the vehicle of a victim within 15 minutes in 400 Acre land without any “checkpoints”. This shows the underlying problem in this investigation in multiple events where the investigators ignore clear leads because they are so caught in the media and coincidental evidence.

The problems in the American justice system are constantly put under the radar until someone life recked away and even ended because the lack of recognition of gaps. These problems are fixable but are often overlooked but mostly solved by non-profits which have nothing to do with certain cases with gaps in evidence and even leads in general. For example, the Innocence project helped Steve in his first case and brought to light the mistakes of the upper echelon. In the case against Adnan, Serial brought to light the gaps and the inconsistencies of cell documents and false confessions of witnesses and alibi’s. Not every case of injustice in the justice system will be overturned however podcast and series such as Serial and Making a Murderer help call out the problems and make the justice system more cautious of the problems throughout the system. In a 2014 article written by Jessica Henry of the Huffington post states two important solutions to this continuous problem. The first being “Pay Attention to — and Speak Out — About Injustice Whenever You See It”, and the second “Hold Prosecutors and Police Responsible for Deliberate Misconduct”. These stood out because if these methods were applied throughout cases it could cut the amount problems that highlighted after someone has served so many years or even executed. The amount of evidence used against Brendan Dassey and Steven Avery in their cases, show multiple gaps but if the court system let alone the "judge" doesn’t call these issues to par the justice system will countinue to get away with this injustice behavior.

In conclusion, a lot of problems throughout the justice system in America arise from the set-up justice system.

As we see in this recent election a lot of the problems we have in this country leads back to past issues. In any situation, there will be problems but now it’s time to fix these problems because the justice system will not get any better if it doesn’t stop. States build jails based off test scores of third grade students living in minority and poor areas which most inadvertently thing ever. The clerk’s office who has direct contact with evidence of cases admits that it was easy access to get evidence and it wouldn’t surprise them. If a state office can speak publicly about something this risky, this blatantly suggest that people in this upper echelon have always committed and carried on this behavior for a long time. Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey’s cases were just largely known, however this issue has been carried out for year under the radar, yet this case has brought this issues to light. The only way to clear this problem is to investigate the American system, will it ever

happen?

Works Cited

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jessica-s-henry/top-10-ways-to-fix-the-cr_b_6362274.html