Judge Delivers Major Blow To Laurie Bembenek

[Archae]

Judge Delivers Major Blow To Laurie Bembenek
Bembenek Can Contest Judge's Ruling

POSTED: 12:23 pm CDT June 15, 2004

MILWAUKEE -- A Milwaukee County judge's decision Tuesday morning brought an abrupt end to convicted killer Laurie Bembenek's two-year fight to clear her name.

In his decision, Judge Jeffrey Conen said Bembenek failed to offer the clear and convincing evidence she would have been acquitted of murdering her husband's ex-wife if new DNA tests results had been available for her 1982 trial.

http://www.themilwaukeechannel.com/news/3420815/detail.html

Dammit! This judge made tracks as fast as he could out of the courtroom, after siding with the corrupt prosecutors and cops who framed Laurie Bembenek.

[Mithras61]

1. Huh?

:wtf:

Bembenek's attorney argued new DNA tests showed Christine Schultz, Bembenek's husband's ex-wife, was the victim of a sexual assault homicide and that Bembenek could not have been Schultz's killer.

But the judge found it more likely the evidence of male DNA could have come from contamination at the crime lab or from consensual sex.

What evidence is there to support these claims from the judge? Is the crime lab being used by Milwaukee as bad as Houston's crime lab was (and maybe still is)? Is there any evidence that supports her having consensual sex shortly before being murdered?

In a related story:
Could Christine Schultz's Murder Be Connected To Unsolved Rapes?
http://www.themilwaukeechannel.com/news/2516443/detail.html
Some 20 years after a jury convicted Bembenek of murdering her husband's ex-wife, her lawyer found a document buried in a file at the Wisconsin Crime Lab.

It lists Schultz's murder with two unsolved sexual assaults.

[Archae]

2. Exactly.

Corrupt cops and prosecutors frame Bembenek, and this bastard of a judge is continuing to help the cover-up.

[NorthernSpy]

8. convictions are usually very hard to overturn

In much of the appellate process, evidence of innocence-in-fact carries little weight. Instead, the convicted person's appeal has to center on points of law and due process.

It's really too bad. I've read a bit on Bembenek's case, and I am not in the least convinced that she had anything to do with the crime.


Mary

[UpInArms]

5. it would appear that

"justice" is deaf, dumb and blind in this case.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

3. I know virtually nothing of this case but used to work in the law biz.

There's an old boy's network in place and overturned convictions don't look good on the old resume.

[On the Road]

4. Oh, Is THAT It?

I could never figure out why some judges insist on upholding decisions they have to know are bad. It really tarnishes the reputation the justice system among anyone who becomes familiar with it.

[candy331]

6. Ironic, the movie just played on Lifetime Monday night.

Justice has pretty much gone out of the land, honor and integrity has about left the judge's bench and the jurors' box both.

[saigon68]

7. They are mostly lap dogs

Thompson appointed hundreds of his Cronies in Wisconsin, in the 14 years he ruled the State. I don't know if this is one of them-- but they all believe the Cops over any citizen, even if the cops (SEE ABU GHRAIB) are rotten to the core.

[shadu]

9. EVERYONE knows she is innocent!

The cops who set her up
and the prosecutors who framed her
should go to prison for life.
This makes me very sad.

[Scairp]

10. Fred Schultz is up to his neck in this

You should read the interview with him, which is on the same page. He is a complete jerk.

I will never understand prosecutors who would rather save face than admit they made a mistake and get the person who actually committed the crime. This is hubris in the extreme.