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Thursday, October 26th, 2023 09:58 pm
I’m exhausted.

I stayed up until 04:00 this morning watching a TV programme called “Making a Murderer”, about a chap called Steven Avery who was initially accused of rape, and how it first took him 18 years to get out of prison. Someone else had committed the rape and that was proved by DNA comparison.

Almost as soon as he got out of prison he was accused of a particularly vile murder. It was less clear whether or not he had committed that crime, though at least one item of evidence had obviously been planted by the police. Why plant evidence if you’re sure of your facts rather mystified me.

The programme was immersive and kept my interest to the end – even to 04:00, I kept on wanting to see what had happened so clicking through to see the next episode. I was surprised to discover it was all genuine events and not a TV series – according to Wikipedia it was filmed over 10 years.

The people I felt most sorry for were Avery’s parents, both desperate and miserable, and the endless cases destroyed them and their business.

It surprised me that Avery (and, later, his nephew) were not identified as vulnerable individuals needing support as both of them had IQ’s of around 70. The police seemed in a hurry to get them to court and not so much to find out the truth of what happened. I do hope I never get accused of anything in Wisconsin if the police are allowed to behave like that.
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Friday, October 27th, 2023 02:36 am (UTC)
When i was working as a legal secretary one of oyr criminal defense lawyers told me he always hoped his clients were actually guilty. When i asked why, he said "because if they're innocent in this system - they're gonna' get chewed up and spit out."
Sunday, October 29th, 2023 02:52 pm (UTC)
Having just read the Wikipedia article, it sounds as if he probably was guilty, *and* that the police planted evidence, which is a thing known to happen when the police are convinced of guilt but don't think they can convince a jury beyond reasonable doubt. They are, of course, often wrong about the guilt.