Joshua Kezer on 'Making a Murderer's' Steven Avery: 'His case is not my case'

Josh Kezer has found people have gone out of their way to express their opinions to him on “Making a Murderer” and the Steven Avery case.

To them, the similarities between Kezer’s case and Avery’s case — as presented in the Netflix documentary — are striking, particularly institutional misconduct.

Kezer’s opinion on “Making a Murderer” has a tendency to make those same people upset.

“The point I’ve been trying to make regarding the case is how I feel people are looking at the case,” Kezer said. “I feel like it’s not consistent with the complexity of the case or considerate of the community of the case. His case is not my case. I wonder if people care if he is guilty.”

Kezer does not know whether Avery is guilty or innocent, and he’s not going to declare himself an expert, even though he was declared innocent of second-degree murder in 2009.

“Cases should not be tried on Netflix, NBC, ABC or Fox,” Kezer said. “This man may have been convicted with an unfair bias. It’s OK to be ignorant, but it’s not OK to deny your ignorance.”

Kezer stressed how a case can build a web of interactions, and he is careful not to alienate anyone in that community. He feels for the family of Teresa Halbach and their search for justice, just as he feels for the family of Angela Mischelle Lawless, the woman he was wrongfully convicted of killing in 1994, and their continuing search for justice. He feels a responsibility of society should be to provide compassion to victims. He finds he’s lucky the Lawless family knows and acknowledges his innocence, because that is not a reality in every case.

“I don’t want to find myself on the opposite side of the aisle as a victim,” he said. “In the case where somebody is sent to prison for something they did not do, we have to take into consideration the person still running loose in society.”

It took a string of events to end in Kezer’s conviction, and it took a string of events for him to finally be set free. Regardless of the mixed emotions he feels about Avery, Kezer has dedicated his life to try to find and help innocent people in prison, because he knows he still could be locked up, as he was for 16 years.

“I wouldn’t be free if not for a powerful man,” Kezer said. “He gave me the opportunity to argue my case and had the mercy to listen. Maybe the powerful need to rethink how they wield their power.”

Kezer is referring to former Cole County Circuit Court judge Richard Callahan, now serving as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri. Callahan wrote the 2009 decision that Kezer’s convictions for second-degree murder and armed criminal action “are hereby set aside and held for naught.”

“I did it because I thought it was the correct thing to do,” Callahan said. “In my last two years as a judge, there was a case in St. Louis, and I voided that conviction. I did not find him innocent. There is a distinction.”

In his decision, Callahan said the criminal-justice system failed in the investigative stage, failed at trial, failed in post-trial review and failed on appeal. The 45-page decision laid out the evidence for Kezer’s innocence, including recantations from three witnesses, the withholding of evidence from the defense and attempts by the prosecution to mislead the jury with inaccurate claims.

Callahan said he tries to keep the obligation of a prosecutor in clear view — maintaining fairness to the defendant while trying to be an advocate for the victims.

“Prosecutors still have to be careful that before they’re advocates that they’re ministers of justice,” Callahan said.

In that decision, Callahan said the only part of the justice system that worked was Scott County Sheriff Rick Walter, who reopened the Lawless murder investigation in 2006 while Kezer was incarcerated. Kezer’s attorney, Charles Weiss, said Walter provided key assistance as the defense was putting together the case.

“I knew we had a lot of investigative work,” Weiss said. “We had to go down and meet the sheriff. We worked together for the next year or two.”

Weiss normally serves as a civil litigator for the Bryan Cave law firm in St. Louis, and it took a case worker for Kezer to connect Weiss to Kezer. One of Weiss’ requirements before taking the case was proof Kezer was innocent.

“I think most lawyers know mistakes can be made,” Weiss said. “As good as the human mind can be, a whole lot of subjectivity can come into decisions. We know innocent people who have been put to death.”

Kezer is an advocate against the death penalty because of the fallibility of the criminal-justice system, and he views the death penalty in direct opposition to his Christian beliefs. He will testify on Tuesday to support a bill from state Sen. Paul Wieland, R-Imperial, to ban the death penalty in Missouri.

At one point, the death penalty was considered in Kezer’s case.

“I’m the last person to argue for the life of a serial killer, child killer or woman killer,” Kezer said. “When we’re talking about the death penalty, we’re involving the lives of innocent men and women. We have to choose a side. Do we choose life or do we choose death? It’s not about choosing life for a psychopath; it’s about choosing life.”

bkleine@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3644

Pertinent address:

Cole County, MO