Stephen Avery Essay

Stephen Avery was born on July 9, 1962. Avery’s family wasn’t very well educated, and this led to him getting into a lot of trouble. When Stephen was just 18 him and his friends broke in to a local tavern and stole 14 dollars in quarters because they were bored. After committing the crime, he went out and got beer and food for his friends. He ended up receiving a 10 month prison sentence for pleading guilty for the burglary, “If I done something wrong I’m gonna admit to it I’ll do the time…”. He said this to show that he admits his faults when he does something wrong and that he’s honest when it comes to showing his mistakes. Nearly two years later, Avery and another one of his friends were convicted for animal cruelty after dousing his cat in gasoline and throwing it on a bon fire. Again he admitted to doing it and pleaded guilty. However, 1985 was just not the year for Avery. He was charged with multiple different crimes, the first one being assaulting his cousin by running her off the road and then confronting her about a

When they picked the aforementioned nine men’s pictures to show to the victim, they used an old picture of Avery, in which his hair was very different then it was currently. When compared to the sketch, this picture was a close match, and it was the one picked out of the nine. A sheriff actually mentioned that the real perpetrator might have been Gregory Allen, but it was ignored, leading to Avery being the sole suspect. Pubic hairs that were collected the victim were tested for DNA years later, and one of them was actually from a person that was neither the victim nor Avery. If it was allowed to be fully investigated, the real criminal might have been found much sooner. Because of the way this case was investigated, Avery was sentenced to a 32 year prison sentence for a crime that he did not commit, which could have been completely