Steven Avery Persuasive Essay

Imagine spending eighteen years of your life in prison for a crime you did not commit. The man who served that time will never get those eighteen years back. That man is Steven Avery. On July 29, 1985, at approximately 3:50 PM, Penny Beerntsen was attacked and raped by a stranger while running along a beach in Wisconsin (Innocence Project, 2016). After she picked her assailant out of a police lineup, he was convicted and sentenced to thirty-two years in prison, and for eighteen of those years, Beerntsen knew that her rapist was behind bars. But in 2003, newly discovered DNA evidence proved that Steven Avery, was not the man who attacked her (Innocence Project, 2016). While he sat in prison, the real rapist, Gregory Allen, remained free before

They stuck to themselves and lived close to each other on their family property, where they also ran a car yard (Ricciardi, 2015). They had a few mix-ups with the law over the years. Steven Avery has been charged with multiple burglaries and cruelty to an animal, in which he dumped gasoline on a cat and proceeded to place it in a fire (Ricciardi, 2015). Avery was also accused by a local woman, who happened to be a relative and married to a county deputy, of running her off the road and pulling a gun on her (Ricciardi, 2015). He admitted to doing so but he claimed the gun wasn't loaded. Though Steven has an IQ of 70 (Ricciardi, 2015), he claims he always admits to his wrongdoings if he actually did them, and his past run-ins with the law have proved that to be true. Before his imprisonment for the rape of Penny Beernsteen, Avery seemed to be getting his life together. He got married and had kids. But while he was in prison for the rape conviction, Avery and his wife divorced, he lost any rights to his kids, and any extra money he or his family had went toward his appeals. Looking for justice after his exoneration, Avery decided to file a thirty-six million dollar lawsuit against Manitowoc County and the officers who took part in his wrongful conviction (Ricciardi,

Lt. James Lenk was again present when the bullet was discovered (Ricciardi, 2015). DNA analyst, Sherry Culhane, testified that there was only enough DNA for one test, and she contaminated that test (Ricciardi, 2015). Though it doesn't change the discovery of Halbach's DNA in the sample. Strang and Buting then pointed out that Culhane's notes from her phone call with the prosecution's investigators said that she tried "to put [Halbach] in the garage or house." (Ricciardi, 2015). That showed that she was asked not for the truth, but to help convict