GREEN BAY (NBC 26) — On Monday, a Waupaca County jury found Tony Haase not guilty in a decades-old double murder case. Wisconsin criminal defense attorney Nicole Morley of the Everson Law Firm in Green Bay. She spoke with NBC 26 about what factors may have influenced the jury’s decision.
“One of the unique things is that they were able to file what’s called a Denny motion. What a Denny motion is is it’s pretty much indicating that there is this third party out there that could have done this crime. And so they were able to bring in that evidence. In a normal jury trial, you’re not able to do that unless the judge approves it… that the jury could consider is that, hey, maybe there’s somebody else who did this.”
“Obviously, 30 years ago, we didn’t have the same technology we have today… some of those initial investigators are deceased now, they’re not able to testify… we have to rely upon the words that they wrote down 30 years ago… The DNA testing is obviously way different 30 years ago than it is today.”
“When you have DNA, you can’t just keep recreating it… once it’s tested so many times it’s pretty much gone… there was also some fingerprint evidence at the scene… they really just took a photograph and were able to use an analyst to zoom in… that’s a lot different than today.”
“I really think it was a case of, did they leave every stone unturned?… What the defense was able to do is say they didn’t look at this, they didn’t look at this, they didn’t look at this… they were able to really show the jury this was not as thorough of an investigation as we thought it was.”
“They used what was called the reed technique… he was interrogated for approximately seven hours… anybody after being questioned for that long is going to break down mentally, emotionally, physically… this is a person who was worn down and exhausted when he finally confessed to the murder.”
“People forget what the legal standard is. It’s not, are you guilty or are you not guilty? You don’t have to prove that you’re not guilty. The burden here is beyond a reasonable doubt. So if that jury would hesitate or pause for even a second, that is a reason to doubt, and that is why you’re found not guilty and acquitted.”
“The jury is kind of a roadblock and a check on the system… Do we have a reason to hesitate? Do we have a reason to doubt? That is fundamental to our criminal justice system.”
