The Wisconsin Innocence Project: Their work in review (note: not all cases are displayed)
By gdibenedetto
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Chris Ochoa
Exact date of project completion unknown. Chris Ochoa did not have a previous criminal record before being convicted of Nancy DePriest's rape and Murder in 1988. In an intense interrogation, police threatened Ochoa with the death penalty if he did not confess. He pled guilty and was convicted. After Ochoa served 13 years, the Wisconsin Innocence Project (WIP) used DNA from the crime scene and proved Ochoa's innocence. Ochoa later graduated from UW Law School and is on the WIP Advisory Board. -
Period: to
Project Completion
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Steven Avery
Steven Avery was convicted of sexual assault and attempted murder in 1985. The convictions were based almost entirely off of one eyewitness. Eighteen years later by DNA testing, Avery was proved not the perpetrator. Also, the DNA profile did match another man who was already serving a 60-year sentance. -
Maurice Carter
After a shooting, the victim and his wife said they could not identify the suspect. Two years later, police arrested Wilbur Gillespie for selling heroin. Police said they would let him go if he identified Carter as the shooter. A week later, police conducted a lineup and they identified Carter as the shooter. During the trial, the defense did not bring up the original statement and the jury found him guilty. Michigan, Illinois and Wisconsin Innocence Projects worked together on this case. -
Evan Zimmerman
Zimmerman was convicted of first-degree intentional homicide and sentanced to life in prison in 2001. After many errors by his lawyer, he neglected to introduce crime scene DNA that excluded Zimmerman. At his retrial in April 2005, the state dismissed all charges after the fourth day. The WI Court of Appeals reversed his conviction on the basis of ineffective assistance of counsel. -
Jarrett Adams
Adams and two co-defendents were charged with sexually assaulting a woman at UW-Whitewater. An eyewitness that lived in the dorm and had been chatting to Adams and the co-defendents after the alleged assault had not been called to testify. The Wisconsin Innocence Project sought habeas corpus relief on the basis that the trail counsel had been not been effective in presenting the witness' testimony. Adams had served ten years for a crime he never committed. He later graduated from law school. -
Beth LaBatte
In 1997, LaBatte was convicted of a 1991 double homicide of two elderly women. The Wisconsin Innocence Project sought DNA and found that all profiles excluded LaBatte. On the basis of this new evidence, the Wisconsin Circuit Court granted LaBatte a new trail in 2005. In 2006, all charges were dropped. -
David Sanders
Sanders was a Franciscan Brother and school teacher. He was convicted of molesting a young boy more than 20 years earlier. After seven months in prison, Sanders sought out the Wisconsin Innocence Project. At about the same time, the victim's grandmother found a letter written from a different "Brother David." When confronted, the guilty David admitted to the crime. -
Jeffrey Dake
Dake was convicted in 1998 of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl. The Wisconsin Innocence Project filed a motion with the court that they did not hear evidence that would have undermined the State's case against Dake: The key eyewitness was sexually assaulting the victim during the same time that Dake allegadly was. After ten years in prision, Dake was released in 2007. -
Audrey Edmunds
In 1996, Edmunds was convicted of first-degree reckless homicide in the death of a seven-month-old child. She was convicted almost entirely on the basis of medical evidence stating that it must have been shaken baby syndrome and it had to have occured while the child was in Edmunds' care. A new trial was granted after the state determined new evidence had emerged since time of the conviction. -
Chaunte Ott
In 1995, Ott was convicted for murder of a teenage runaway. His conviction was based on two other men's testimony that allegedly committed the crime with him. Ott was released in 2008 based on DNA results that supported his claim of innocence. Also the State Crime Laboratory found that the male's DNA found in the victim was linked to two other unsolved murders after Ott went to prison. -
Robert Lee Stinson
Stinson was convicted of a 1985 murder. His conviction rested almost exclusively on teeth bite marks found on the victim. The Wisconsin Innocence Project developed two new types of evidence including DNA testing and a forensic science panel determining that Stinson's teeth could not have inflicted the bites. Stinson served over 24 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit. -
Cody Vandenberg
In 1996 Vandenberg was convicted of attempted murder and armed robbery. The state relied on one witness, who had stolen the victim's wallet following the attack, and the victim's shaky identification to convict Vandenberg. When Vandenberg's first appeal was pending, the witness admitted to the crime. Shortly before the retrial, the state offered a maximum sentance of 12 years while Vandenberg had already served 14. He pleaded guilty to avoid conviction. -
Davonn Robinson
Robinson was convicted of sexual assault in 2006. Robinson said that he did nothing wrong but police alleged that Robinson said he committed the crime, the interrogation was never recorded. Four years later in 2010, one of the accusers of Robinson told police that he had lied. In August 2010, the state dismissed all charges. -
Seneca Malone
Malone was convicted of first degree intentional homicide in 2008. The conviction was solely based on one eyewitness. The Wisconsin Innocence Project discovered that Malone's representation was ineffective. Shortly before his retrial, the state offered Malone a plea deal that would guarantee Malone wouldn't return to prison. He took the deal. -
Joseph Frey
Frey was convicted for sexual assault in 1993 of a UW-Oshkosh student in her dorm room. Frey became a suspect after Green Bay Police notified Oshkosh that Frey had committed two sexual assaults in the area. After a rape kit and other pieces of evidence had been improperly destroyed prior to trial, the Wisconsin Innocence Project tested Frey's DNA along with a bedsheet, the only piece of evidence saved. The DNA convicted the correct offender and Frey recieved maximum compensation for the case. -
Forest Shomberg
In 2003 Shomberg was convicted of second-degree sexual assault, false imprisonment and bail jumping. At trial, the victim said that Shomberg "very well could not have been the guy" and Shomberg had an alibi for the time of the assault. The Wisconsin Innocence Project's DNA testing found that Shomberg was not there. In 2012 the Wisconsin Claims board denied Shomberg's request for compensation. He later passed away and the board awarded the compensation to his family. -
Terry Vollbrecht
Vollbrecht never admitted to the sexual assault and murder of an 18-year-old Wisconsin woman. The trail court granted a new trial on the ground of new evidence: an alternative suspect that had committed a similar crime. After a year on bail awaiting trail, Vollebrecht was sentanced to 25 years in prison, to which he already served 22 years. He served the remaining three years on parole. -
Mario Vasquez
Vasquez walked free from a Wisconsin jail after serving nearly 17 years for child sexual assault. The conviction was lost on the basis of new evidence. Vasquez served 17 out of his 20 years and could have been paroled earlier but refused to engage in sex offender courses in jail.
