Law enforcement or not...no one is perfect

I recently watched the first episode of Making a Murderer and it paints an interesting picture for me. I think it shows that, even in and around the field of law enforcement, no one is perfect and everyone has the ability to act imperfectly and consequently negatively affect a fellow human beings life. In relation to this notion, I found it shocking how much someones past and likability in a community can affect the way an individual is treated. I know that criminal history is used as an aggravating factor that could be used to convict someone, but other factors usually come into play I think. These things involve further investigation when points are brought up regarding the possibility of innocence and alibis, that can be proven by witnesses, that can also provide what is needed for someone to beat a case. Further, the subject of this film, Steven Avery, belonged to a family that did not function in their community as they were expected to. Then, due to this, while also incorporating Avery's past reckless behavior, you found a person who was not liked or respected as much as others in his community. The victim in his case, Penny Beerntsen, personified her community and was one of the respected individuals that Avery seemed not to be. I was shocked by these things, but the first thing I found to be problematic related to the police department and the district attorney and how they handled this case. The police department and the district attorney seemed to want Avery to be the one who would go to jail for this. I think this is explicated in the show when Michael Griesbach, the assistant district attorney, explained that when he told the old district attorney, Denis Vogel, about Avery not being guilty he received no shocked reaction, but another unexpected response. Vogel only asked him if there was anything about Gregory Allen in the files they had related to the case. This showed to Griesbach that Vogel thought Allen could be the person at fault. Griesbach further investigated this and found that there was a complaint in Avery's file about Allen committing a sexual crime on the same part of beach that Avery's victim was assaulted. Further, Vogel prosecuted this case or was involved in said prosecution. This leads Griesbach to believe that the district attorney and the police department may have known of Avery's innocence the whole time and even knew the real assailant from the start. This is awful. A man lost almost twenty years of his life due to the fact that it seems that the legal system acted in an unprofessional and unfair way in order to obtain a fast conviction.

To build on this point, while the investigation was underway, other things stood out to me that the police department did that I found to be problematic. These things involved what seemed to be the misuse of a prior mugshot to draw a sketch of an unknown subject, the misuse of what seemed to be clear evidence of an alibi for Avery, and the police telling Avery that if he admitted to the crime, that he did not commit, then he would be let out of prison right away. All three of these things show a legal system focused on captaining and sustaining a conviction as their top priority instead of focusing on justice as their main objective. In these three things we see police work that is not ethical, with the mugshot, Avery's alibi not holding firm even though witnesses and recites showed he was not close to the crime when it occurred, and police trying to get their conviction, through Avery's admittance to the crime, instead of the justice Avery deserved. This whole situation was a great example of how the world is not perfect. This involves law enforcement and the people they protect.

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This show, in my opinion, is a great example of how communication and writing can make all of the difference in a criminal case. The communication between the investigative parties in this show were severely lacking. I think this was their own doing though. They chose to not hear and or take advantage of beneficial evidence that could have avoided this entire fiasco. They seemed to not pay any attention  to evidence that supported Avery's alibi's, in relation to the recite and the many witnesses that vouched for his whereabouts. Then, throughout the video the viewer learns that the district attorney, and possibly the police department as well, knew that Gregory Allen was a threat in relation to sexual assault crimes and that he was spotted close to the scene of the crime some time before the day of the assault against Penny Beerntsen. So, with that being said, I saw a situation that could have been prevented with better communication between the parties involved. I think in order to improve the faulty communication we see here police departments and district attorney's need to work a little closer together and incorporate active writing and audio logs into their meetings. I say that because the closer relationship will allow for more thorough investigation I think and then the audio and writing logs will keep them honest. These logs would then have to be consistently reviewed to keep these parties honest. I think this needs to occur because although a person has made mistakes before and may not be an active member of a close knit community that does not give the law enforcement agencies, that protect and serve him, the right to pick on him. I think this will also be able to get law enforcement agencies to focus more on justice then conviction rates, which I think they were unable to do here. I think they saw a man who was not particularly liked in the community and has had prior problems with law enforcement, so they thought a conviction would be easy to get.

With the above information being said, my favorite part of this show was not my favorite part for its entertainment value, but rather for the controversy that surrounded it. I thought the mugshot part of this was unbelievable. The reason for this was because a point was made during the program regarding how Avery looked at the specific moment in time he had been arrested and placed in the lineup for the sexual assault case involving victim Penny Beerntsen. This was compared to the sketch, made by Chief Deputy Eugene Kusche, that was made of the unknown assailant. This sketch looked just like a mugshot of Avery from an earlier arrest, but Kusche claims he did not see this mugshot until after he made the sketch. Then, going back to my earlier comment, Avery's current mugshot was compared to the sketch and it was not even close to being the same anymore. The pictures were different. So, if they were trying to frame Avery with this sketch, believed to have been created from an old mugshot of Avery, it looks like they succeeded. In the show it is pointed out that due to the difference in mugshots, from present to past, it could be argued that the old mugshot was used to create the sketch. Then, further, it was stated that the case against Avery was made that night by members of the police department. Avery even explained that the sheriff stated that he had him now and further that the sheriff had all of the power. So, here I see a situation where an entire case was probably created against an individual with a rocky past because the police department seems to be focused on just getting a conviction, as fast as possible, instead of properly investigating the situation and trying to get justice for all parties. I think the goals of this police department were only to get a quick conviction instead of getting a conviction that yields justice for all parties and because of that I thought it was worth mentioning and the reason it was my favorite part.