Wisconsin governor refuses request to pardon Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey

WARNING 'MAKING A MURDERER' SPOILERS BELOW:

The governor of Wisconsin has ruled out pardoning two men serving life sentences for murder, after a Netflix documentary highlighted their story as a potential miscarriage of justice.

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker refused to pardon Steven Avery and his nephew Brendan Dassey after their story ‘Making a Murderer’ sparked an online petition demanding their release.

Avery and Dassey are currently serving life sentences for the 2005 murder of freelance photographer Teresa Halbach.

Ms Halbach was found outside Avery’s home in Manitowoc County, Wisconsin, her car and car key were also found on his property.

Despite many arguing Avery’s innocence – Walker refused to be swayed by the 300,000 plus signatures on the petition.

"Those who feel they have been wrongly convicted can seek to have their convictions overturned by a higher court," a spokeswoman for Walker said.

A Whitehouse.gov petition has also asked President Barack Obama to pardon the pair – it has received more than 113,000 signatures.

However President Obama does not have authority to intervene in the case, only Walker has that power.

Walker has not issued a pardon since his election in 2010.

The Netflix documentary questioned the handling of the case and motivation of the Manitowoc County law enforcement officials.

Avery was previously wrongfully convicted of an unrelated rape and imprisoned in 1985, he served 18 years in jail before DNA evidence proved his innocence.

After his release he filed a $36m federal civil rights lawsuit against the county, including its former Sheriff and district attorney in 2004.
That case was settled in 2006 for about $400,000.

One year after he filed the lawsuit both Avery and Dassey were accused of killing Ms Halbach.

In 2007 they were convicted.

The 10-part documentary suggests authorities investigating the Halbach murder planted evidence against Avery and Dassey.

Since it aired a juror in the Avery case told Yahoo News of his doubts in their conviction.

Richard Mahler, who was released on the first day of deliberations for personal reasons, told Yahoo US: “According to the evidence that I reviewed in the court room the six weeks I was there, it didn’t all add up.”

Mahler said he feared for his life during the trial and still does now to this day.

Mahler cited a number of pieces of evidence that led him to believe that Avery was innocent.

First, there was the vial of Avery’s blood that was tampered with. “I don’t think that a normal person could walk into that clerk of courts office and mess with that vial,” he said.

“It had to be someone who had access to that room.”

Then there was the key from Halbach’s car that was found in Avery’s home.

“The key didn’t have Teresa’s DNA on it,” Mahler said.

“It didn’t make sense to me either.” Finally, he noted, “there was no blood in Steven’s trailer or near the garage or DNA of Teresa’s anywhere to be found.”

Mahler said that when he asked a member of the jury after the trial why they convicted Avery, the juror told him: “Think of all the things he did when he was younger.”

He said that he took that comment to mean that Avery’s conviction was based on all of the things he had done when he was younger and not on the evidence in the trial.

In the initial moments in the jury room following the trial, Mahler described a paper ballot vote taken of the jury. “The vote came out seven not guilty, three guilty and two undecided.”

Mahler further described a number of incidents that he found disturbing in the initial hours of deliberation.

“I walked into the jury room for the first four hours of deliberation and one of the gentlemen had his arms crossed, and he said to me, ‘He’s guilty as hell.’ And I thought to myself, ‘How can this be? What is wrong with this guy? He’s not even willing to look at the evidence.’”

Mahler also described what happened during the first lunch break of deliberations.

He told a fellow juror, “‘Man, I just can’t handle this.’ And he said, ‘Then why don’t you leave?’” Mahler said, “I don’t know if he thought because I was a threat to the guilty verdict or not, but I took that pretty hard too.”

He later got a phone call that his stepdaughter had been in an accident. It was a combination of the family emergency and the comments at lunch and in the jury room that led him to, as he described, “an emotional breakdown.” “That’s why I left the jury.”

Mahler said he knew nothing about Avery going into the trial, but he “has learned that a lot of people on the jury had been out to the junkyard or knew Steven in some way.”

In other words, he said, he doesn’t believe the jury was impartial.