Making a Murderer exposes the systemic corruption that occurred throughout a thirty year span in the Steven Avery case in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. Viewers get a rare look at what goes on behind the scenes of an investigation in which police and prosecutors disregard the rights of the accused to ensure a conviction. I am particularly…
One of the biggest contributing factors to wrongful convictions is police tunnel vision. This occurs in a fairly high percentage of the cases that have been studied – post DNA exonerations. It occurs when police narrow in on a suspect from the very beginning and then fail to consider other possibilities, suspects or scenarios. They…
This was another misleading part of the trial – Nancy’s running shoes. The prosecutors presented two pairs of her running shoes found in the home: an old pair of Asics and a newer pair of Sauconys. They wanted the jurors to believe that since her old and new pair of shoes were in the house,…
On the morning of July 12th, Brad made two trips to the Harris Teeter store. Trip one was made to buy milk for Katie, his two year old daughter. A second trip at 6:40AM was made to pick up laundry detergent. During the second trip, Brad received a phone call on his cell phone from…
Shortly after Nancy’s body was found, Investigator Grier mailed a letter to the medical examiner, Dr. Butts requesting a time of death and blood alcohol level. What I only recently realized is that he stated in his letter that Nancy was last seen alive shortly after midnight the morning of July 12th. She left the…
Recently I came across a law blog written by attorney Jeremy Rosenthal. He discussed the importance of proving that computer evidence can be linked to the accused with absolute certainty. From his article: The biggest challenge for the prosecutor is to ‘put the Defendant’s fingers on the keyboard.’ In other words, the prosecutor must show…
For those following this case, it is now obvious from comments from the jury foreman that Brad Cooper was convicted based on computer evidence of an alleged Google search of the location where Nancy Cooper’s body was later found. It is clear there are many uncertainties about this evidence because while the computer was in…
