Note: To arrange an interview with crime victim Penny Beerntsen, who will speak at the benefit performance, contact Lisa Lacher at (515) 271-3119 or lisa.lacher@drake.edu.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 11, 2005

CONTACT: Lisa Lacher, (515) 271-3119, lisa.lacher@drake.edu

DRAKE LEGAL CLINIC TO BENEFIT FROM PERFORMANCE OF 'THE EXONERATED'

Proceeds from a special performance of "The Exonerated," a joint production of the Des Moines Playhouse and StageWest, will support programs at the Drake Law School's Legal Clinic. The benefit performance will start at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 26, at the Des Moines Playhouse, two days before the regular run of the play (Jan. 28 - Feb.13).

"The issues raised by "The Exonerated" about our criminal justice system, and the costs of wrongful convictions, could not be more important, more timely, or more timeless," said Drake Law School Dean David Walker. "We're grateful to the Playhouse and StageWest for their support and collaboration, because funds raised by the performance will go to support our clinical education programs, including our criminal defense program, which offer free legal services to low-income and elderly clients in the community."

Originally produced in New York in 2002, "The Exonerated" was written by Jessica Blank and Eric Jensen after they interviewed 40 former death row prisoners. Their play tells the stories of six innocent people who endured from two to 22 years on death row and were eventually exonerated, often thanks to an attorney who took on their case pro bono, or law school students seeking to right a wrong.

Before viewing the Jan. 26 performance, the audience will hear from Penny Beerntsen, a former Wisconsin resident who had mistakenly identified Steven Avery as the man who sexually assaulted and nearly killed her while she was jogging a Lake Michigan beach in Manitowoc County, Wis., in 1985. Beerntsen, a former resident of Keokuk, Iowa, who now lives in suburban Chicago, will speak about her experience and advocate changing the way law enforcement officials show suspects to victims and other witnesses of crime.

Avery served 18 years in prison before being exonerated through DNA tests and the work of the Wisconsin Innocence Project at the University of Wisconsin Law School. The DNA tests showed Avery could not have committed the crime and indicated the assailant was Gregory A. Allen, who is serving a 60-year sentence for another sexual assault and kidnapping that occurred in 1995.

Avery was arrested based on a description Beerntsen gave then-Manitowoc County Sheriff Tom Kocourek from her hospital bed. News accounts since Avery's release revealed that Manitowoc police had been following Allen every day for the two weeks leading to Beerntsen's attack because they feared he might commit a sexual assault. Although police told the Sheriff's Department shortly after the attack that they believed Allen might have been her assailant, the department never presented Allen as a suspect to Beerntsen.

After Avery was freed in September 2003, Wisconsin established the Avery Task Force to explore new methods of handling eyewitnesses and suspects.

Beerntsen testified before the task force last February. "I will always be known as the woman who wrongfully accused Steven Avery of being my assailant," she said. "I hope I will also be privileged to play some small part in lessening the likelihood that this will happen to someone else."

Wrongful convictions "hurt everybody," Beerntsen said later. "When the wrong person is convicted, not only does that person serve time in prison unjustly, the actual perpetrator remains free to commit further crimes. My actual assailant wasn't convicted until 1995 even though he was charged or suspected in 10 crimes between 1985 and 1995. Not a day goes by that I don't think of the woman Gregory Allen attacked in Green Bay in 1995 and how different her life would be if the right person had been convicted in my case."

When Avery went off to prison, he lost virtually everything, according to Keith Findley, co-director of the Wisconsin Innocent Project. "When he was arrested, he had a wife and five children, a job and a supportive extended family. His wife divorced him while he was in prison. When he walked out of prison, his children were all grown. Two of his children — twins — were less than a week old when he was imprisoned. When he was released, they were 18. He never had a chance to know those children."

Professor Findley and Beerntsen have been speaking at law schools across the country, including Hamlin, Marquette, Northwestern and Yeshiva University's Benjamin Cordozo School of Law. "Penny is a courageous, remarkable woman," he said. "After Steven Avery was exonerated, she took the initiative to meet with him and extend her apologies to him for what had happened. They had a warm meeting that ended with a hug."

In conjunction with the benefit performance of "The Exonerated," Drake Law School will hold a panel discussion on "Issues of Eyewitness Identification and Exoneration" from 1 to 4 p.m. January 26 at the Neal and Bea Smith Law Center. The event is free and open to the public.
"The focus of the discussion will be the cost of wrongful convictions in lives and dollars and whether there are changes in eyewitness identification procedures that can be implemented that will lessen the likelihood of faulty identification," said Robert Rigg, director of Drake Law School's Criminal Defense Program.

The panelists include:

Gary L. Wells, a distinguished professor of psychology at Iowa State University and an internationally recognized expert on the reliability of eyewitness identification.

Keith Findley, a University of Wisconsin Law School-clinical associate professor and co-director of the Wisconsin Innocence Project.
Christopher Ochoa, a second-year law student at the University of Wisconsin. He was convicted of rape and murder in Austin, Texas. Through the efforts of the Wisconsin Innocence Project, he was exonerated through the use of DNA tests after serving12 years in prison.

Steve Foritano, a first assistant county attorney for Polk County. He has handled numerous high-profile cases at the trial and appellate levels.
Don C. Nickerson, a Polk County district court judge who served as United States attorney in the Southern District of Iowa from 1993 to 2001 and was in private practice before serving as associate general counsel for Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa.

"The Exonerated," directed by Todd Buchacker, will open at the Des Moines Playhouse on Friday, January 28, and continue through February 13.

Tickets for the benefit performance are $25 or $15 for students. Tickets also are available at $50 for the performance and a reception that will be held at 5:30 p.m. Jan. 26 at the Des Moines Playhouse. For ticket reservations, call the Drake Legal Clinic at (515) 271-3851.

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