MADISON, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — The Wisconsin Supreme Court has denied Steven Avery’s latest appeals.
Avery is serving a life term for the 2005 murder of Teresa Hallbach.
In July, the state Court of Appeals denied a series of motions made to Sheboygan County Judge Angela Sutkiewicz, the circuit court judge now handling the case. Avery’s attorneys were seeking evidentiary hearings or a new trial, based on nearly a dozen claims, but all were denied.
A 41-page motion asked the state’s high court to review three “critical” issues:
“First, Mr. Avery presents this Court with an opportunity to correct the lower courts’ misinterpretations of the pleading standard to obtain an evidentiary hearing on Mr. Avery’s claims. Second, Mr. Avery presents this Court with an opportunity to decide whether Mr. Avery has sufficiently alleged Brady claims warranting an evidentiary hearing, or in the alternative, a new trial. Third, Mr. Avery presents this Court with the opportunity to fashion a remedy for a state actor’s destruction of evidence in violation of Wis. Stat. 968.205 and decide whether the violation of the statute is sufficient evidence of “bad faith” to warrant an evidentiary hearing on a Youngblood claim, or in the alternative, grant Mr. Avery a new trial in the interest of justice,” wrote his attorney, Kathleen Zellner.
In September, the state Attorney General’s office said the petition should be denied because “As he has done throughout this proceeding, in his petition Avery has egregiously misrepresented the record (as the court of appeals repeatedly noted1), the law, the lower courts’ opinions, and even his own arguments.”
On Wednesday, the state Supreme Court issued a response, saying “It is ordered that the petition for review is denied, without costs.”
Avery’s nephew, Brendan Dassey, was also convicted in the case. He currently does not have any appeals pending.
Their cases received worldwide attention with the 2015 release of the Netflix series “Making A Murderer.”
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