Manitowoc Co. Prosecutor Set to Release Second Book on Avery Case

A Manitowoc County prosecutor is preparing to release a book about Steven Avery. Avery and his nephew Brendan Dassey were convicted for the 2005 rape and murder of Teresa Halbach. It is one of the highest profile criminal cases in Northeast Wisconsin in the past decade.

The book titled "The Innocent Killer" connects Avery's wrongful 1985 rape conviction with the actions that led him to kill Halbach. And while the author says the book is for educational purposes, Halbach's family is disgusted it's even being published.

Michael Griesbach, a prosecutor with the Manitowoc County District Attorney's Office was the on-call DA the night searches found Teresa Halbach's SUV on the Avery salvage yard property in November of 2005. But because his county was being sued by Steven Avery for his 1985 rape conviction, for which he spent 18 years in prison, only to be exonerated, continuing to work on the case was a conflict of interest. So, like many others, Griesbach watched as an observer as the case unfolded.

Then, in 2010, Griesbach self published "Unreasonable Inferences" a book about Avery, his wrongful conviction and how it led him to commit the Halbach murder. A story that will be told again, with some additions, in "The Innocent Killer" the second book on Avery that Griesbach is having published by the American Bar Association, due out next month.

"It's a situation where, had he not been wrongfully convicted, he would have been somewhere else. He would have, perhaps there would have been other victims but this specific case would not have happened, but that's not the point of the book," says Michael Griesbach.

Griesbach says the book should be used as a teaching tool.

Adding, "The Avery wrongful conviction was an aberration, it's not the way police and prosecutors act. When it happens though, we have to look at it and we need to see what sort of lessons they hold for the criminal justice system."

That reasoning isn't sitting well with the family of Teresa Halbach who released a statement through her brother Mike Halbach saying in part, "Some individuals find it acceptable to use the death of my sister, Teresa, to promote themselves, to glorify murder and murderers, and to profit personally...Violence doesn't have to be made into entertainment, especially when additional undue harm is caused toward those who were victimized in the first place."

Griesbach disagrees, but says his one regret in writing the books is the fact he's upset the Halbach family.

See the original post:
Manitowoc Co. Prosecutor Set to Release Second Book on Avery Case