MILWAUKEE _ Steven Avery's new Chicago-area lawyer, who has been declaring for months she will produce evidence to exonerate Avery of the murder of Teresa Halbach, is due to make a court filing any day.
Kathleen Zellner, who has a history of winning exonerations, has been ordered by the Wisconsin Court of Appeals to make a filing by Monday.
It's not clear what will be contained in the document. But for months on Twitter, Zellner has said she will produce evidence so strong that it will free Avery, not get him a new trial, though that is also a possibility.
Last week, Zellner told The New York Times she would file a motion seeking to access DNA evidence that was collected from the crime scene near Avery's Manitowoc County home. She said she wants to get new testing, some of which was not possible during Avery's 2007 trial.
Zellner has also indicated she believes evidence points to another suspect in the Halloween 2005 killing of Halbach, a 25-year-old photographer whose burned remains were found outside of Avery's trailer. DNA evidence linking Avery and Halbach was crucial in Avery's conviction, though his original attorneys argued that some evidence was planted by Manitowoc County sheriff's deputies.
The new court filing for Avery, 54, comes on the heels of the Aug. 12 decision by a federal court judge in Milwaukee overturning the conviction of Brendan Dassey, Avery's nephew, who was convicted in a separate 2007 trial. The judge did not rule Dassey guilty or not guilty, but rather determined that the confession of the then-16-year-old was involuntary because of the way he was interrogated. State Attorney General Brad Schimel is deciding whether to retry Dassey, who was not linked to the crimes by physical evidence.
Zellner announced in January, a few weeks after the Netflix series "Making A Murderer" was released, that she is representing Avery. She is being assisted by Tricia Bushnell, director of the Kansas City-based Midwest Innocence Project. Bushnell formerly worked for the Wisconsin Innocence Project, whose work exonerated Avery of a 1985 sexual assault and freed him after 18 years in prison.
