On July 29 1985, Penny Ann Beernsten was running that morning like she usually did. She was running the perimeter of the Lake Michigan shoreline when she was brutally attacked and raped by a man. The innocent project stated from police records that based on a physical description of Beernsten’s attacker, police were able to provide pictures of nine men. Steven Avery was among those men, and was arrested the following day. Truth in Justice stated that “sixteen witness, including Avery’s family and friends, a cement contractor, and clerks at Shopko, along with store receipts from Shopko corroborated Avery’s alibi.” A little interesting fact from the Innocence Project states that “A checkout tape put the purchase at 5:13 p.m. Beernsten put the
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Every time, he was denied. In 1995, a petition for DNA testing on Beernsten’s fingernails was granted and it showed that the fingernails contained DNA of an unknown person. This didn’t completely eliminate Avery from the running, but it meant that another person could have done this crime. The Innocence Project also states that “In April of 2002, attorneys for the Wisconsin Innocence Project obtained a court order for DNA testing of 13 hairs recovered from Beernsten at the time of the crime”. With this new DNA that the FBI was able to test on, it linked the hair to a man named Gregory Allen, who was a convicted felon who looked like Steven Avery. “Allen was then serving a 60-year prison term for a sexual assault in Green Bay that occurred after the attack on Beernsten” (InnocenceProject.org). Avery was released from prison on September 11, 2003 after serving 18 years. Because of his wrongful conviction and losing all of that time in his life, he filed a federal lawsuit against Manitowoc County, their sheriff, Thomas Kocurek, and their district attorney, Denis Vogel for 36 million dollars. In 2006, the lawsuit was settled for $400,000. This was only the beginning of Avery’s
Every time, he was denied. In 1995, a petition for DNA testing on Beernsten’s fingernails was granted and it showed that the fingernails contained DNA of an unknown person. This didn’t completely eliminate Avery from the running, but it meant that another person could have done this crime. The Innocence Project also states that “In April of 2002, attorneys for the Wisconsin Innocence Project obtained a court order for DNA testing of 13 hairs recovered from Beernsten at the time of the crime”. With this new DNA that the FBI was able to test on, it linked the hair to a man named Gregory Allen, who was a convicted felon who looked like Steven Avery. “Allen was then serving a 60-year prison term for a sexual assault in Green Bay that occurred after the attack on Beernsten” (InnocenceProject.org). Avery was released from prison on September 11, 2003 after serving 18 years. Because of his wrongful conviction and losing all of that time in his life, he filed a federal lawsuit against Manitowoc County, their sheriff, Thomas Kocurek, and their district attorney, Denis Vogel for 36 million dollars. In 2006, the lawsuit was settled for $400,000. This was only the beginning of Avery’s