Kathleen Zellner

**Kathleen Edrie Thomas Zellner** is an American defense attorney focussing extensively on wrongful conviction advocacy. She is Steven Avery's current postconviction attorney. She has been representing Steven since January 2016, picking up his case shortly after the release of season one of *Making a Murderer*.

As of 2021 Zellner has overturned 20 wrongful convictions. Zellner stated numerous times she plans to add Steven Avery to that list, but also said the Avery case is the toughest case she has had so far. Other well-known cases include those of serial killer Larry Eyler, Kevin Fox (success), Ryan Ferguson (success), Christy Lentz (denied) and Melissa Calusinski (pending).

## Life

Kathleen Zellner was born on 7 May 1949 in Midland, Texas, as the second-oldest of seven children. Her father is Owen Daniel Thomas, a geologist, and her mother Winifred Margaret Hall was a chemist who later became a nurse. Her siblings are psychologists and lawyers. In 1958 when Zellner was 9 nine years old she and her family moved to small-town Bartlesville in Oklahoma.

As a kid Zellner wanted to become an investigative journalist or work for the FBI. She was interested in crimes and analyzing plots, and she loves solving things and constructing arguments. She was also a fan of the *Nancy Drew Mysteries* television series, having watched all episodes. It was at the suggestion of her husband that Zellner began pursuing a career as a lawyer. Zellner described herself as a conservative Republican and says she is a supporter of the death penalty.

Her husband, Robert Zellner, is a commodities and bond trader with a doctorate in economics. They have a daughter named Anne, who is also a lawyer, in Nevada.

Zellner currently represents Melissa Calusinski, and Steven Avery, among others. She described the Avery case as "probably the most difficult case we've had", but thinks he will be free.

## Career

### Early cases

In October 1990 Zellner was appointed by the Illinois Supreme Court to handle Larry Eyler's Death Row case, her first major case. Larry Eyler was convicted for the 1984 kidnapping and murder of 16-year-old Daniel Bridges, but was also believed to have murdered about 20 other teenage boys and young men in a series of killings committed between 1982 and 1984 in the Midwestern States. Eyler always insisted he was innocent of the one murder he was convicted of. Despite the victim being stabbed and dismembered in Eyler's own appartment, Eyler claimed he only helped dispose of the body.

While working on the Eyler case Zellner began her own law-firm.

Zellner stated Eyler had begun compiling a list of his victims shortly after she had been appointed as his legal representative in 1990 in an effort to obtain a plea bargain whereby his sentence would be commuted to one of life imprisonment. The deal did not go through. In the spring of 1993 Eyler finally gave Zellner permission to disclose his list of 21 victims after his death.

In 1994 Eyler died of AIDS-related complications. On 8 March, two days after his death, Zellner held a press conference detailing the killings. Shortly before this Zellner had prepared a further appeal disputing her client's conviction in the Bridges murder.

Following the Eyler case Zellner vowed never again to represent a client who she knows or believes is guilty. Zellner took cases of many other people claiming to be innocent, including the Roscetti Four (murder), Kevin Fox (murder and rape), Ryan Ferguson (murder) and Melissa Calusinski (murder) and has been succesful in most of them.

### Steven Avery case

Zellner was twice offered Avery's case, but didn't take it until after the release of *Making a Murderer* in December 2015. According to Zellner she initially did not pick up on it due the evidence against Avery, but after watching the documentary series she changed her mind.

In 2016 Zellner filed a motion for post-conviction scientific testing, requesting a very large amount of evidence from the Steven Avery case so she could subject the evidence to contemporary testing methods unavailable at the time of Avery's conviction, hoping to uncover evidence leading to the "real killer", or evidence tampering. That same year Zellner settled with the State to release a small portion of the evidence she originally requested.

Roughly half a year later Zellner filed the *Motion for Post-conviction Relief*. Though Zellner would file many more motions after this, the PCR-motion is her "main" motion, requesting an evidentiary hearing for her client. The main arguments from her 1,200-page motion center around ineffective assistance by Avery's previous attorneys, alleged withholding of evidence by the prosecution, newly discovered evidence and ethical violations by special prosecutor Ken Kratz.

The PCR-motion was denied in October that same year, while Zellner was in the midst of further investigation. Zellner tried to appeal the Judge's decision hoping to get a chance to introduce more newly discovered evidence and obtain more evidence from the State she had just requested. The many subsequent motions Zellner filed to appeal the Judge's decision were all denied in November 2017.

Despite this setback, Zellner continued her campaign for Avery throughout 2018 and 2019. Zellner filed many motions on behalf of her client, most notably a motion about the discovery of a CD with pornographic material copied from the Dassey family computer hard drive that Zellner claims had never been shared with the defense, and another motion about the discovery of the fact that certain charred bone material found outside the Avery property were given to the Halbach family without Avery's consent. Both of these motions, as well as others filed around that time, were denied.

In 2020 Zellner filed a motion with the Court of Appeals in trying to appeal the result of her efforts so far. As of June 2021 this motion is fully briefed (meaning the State has filed its response to the motion and Zellner a response to the State's response). As of November 2020 the briefs have been submitted to the Court of Appeals.

In 2021 Zellner requested the Court of Appeals to sent her case back to the circuit court (without cancelling the appeal). The request was denied in July 2021, as well as her entire appeal.

## List of cases

A selection of cases Zellner has worked on over the years.

## See also

* Steven Avery
* Angela Sutkiewicz
* Kathleen Zellner's appeal history
* Affidavits for Zellner’s appeals
* List of tweets by Zellner about the Avery case

## Notes

1. ↑ In this case Zellner was trial counsel, not post-conviction counsel.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Texas Department of Health, Birth Records
2. ↑ ABC, Localish: "Attorney frees the wrongfully convicted"
3. ↑ Minutaglio, Rose (October 31, 2018). "Who Is Steven Avery's Attorney Kathleen Zellner?". *Esquire*.
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Conroy, John, "The Return of Larry Eyler". *Chicago Reader*. July 30, 1992.
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 Bils, Jeffrey, "EYLER'S ATTORNEY BECAME PRISONER OF HIS CONFESSIONS". *Chicago Tribune*. March 21, 1994.
6. ↑ O'Conner, Matt, "Ex-wife Gets 6 Years in Plot to Kill Naperville Doctor". *Chicago Tribune*. August 27, 1999.
7. ↑ Maxwell, Tonya, "Man freed in murder dies short of dream". *Chicago Tribune*. April 28, 2006.
8. ↑ Ward, Clifford, "Ex-gymnastics coach pleads guilty to lesser charges in abuse case". *Chicago Tribune*. November 22, 2012.