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Kathleen Zellner

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Kathleen Zellner
Kathleen Zellner was chosen as Chicago Lawyer Magazine's Person of the Year in 2014.
Born
Kathleen Thomas

Midland, Texas
OccupationAttorney
EmployerKathleen T. Zellner & Associates
Websitekathleentzellner.com

Kathleen Zellner (née Thomas) is an American lawyer based near Chicago, Illinois, who has a private practice. She is known for gaining the exoneration and release of 17 men in wrongful conviction cases.

In January 2016 she announced she was taking on the defense of Steven Avery, working with Tricia Bushnell, legal director of the Midwest Innocence Project. Avery was convicted in 2007 of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment in Wisconsin. His case was the subject of a 10-episode documentary series, Making a Murderer (2015), shown on Netflix.

Early life

Zellner was born in Midland, Texas. She is the second oldest of eight children. Her father, Owen Daniel Thomas,[1] was an engineer and geologist for Phillips Petroleum in charge of its worldwide production and exploration. He was involved in the Ekofisk oil discovery in the North Sea and discoveries in South America, Asia, Africa and Europe.[2]

Zellner attended the University of Missouri as an undergraduate, marrying Robert E. Zellner, Jr. before completing her degree. She began her legal education at the McGill College of Law in Canada, in its double degree program in French civil law and English common law. She completed her legal education at the Northern Illinois University College of Law.[3]

Career

Zellner started her law firm in January 1991. The firm represents both civil and criminal clients. She has obtained the exoneration of 17 wrongfully convicted men, handling many of these cases pro bono.[4] She obtained the release of death row inmate Joseph Burrows by persuading the real killer, Gayle Potter, to confess to the murder. The Illinois Supreme Court affirmed the trial court decision releasing Burrows from death row.[5]

In November 2009, Zellner took on client Ryan Ferguson, who had served seven years in prison following a conviction for murder.[6][7] She gained an overturn of his conviction by the Missouri Court of Appeals Western District.[8] On November 12, 2013, Ferguson was released from prison after serving 10 years.

In 1994, Zellner persuaded Larry Eyler to confess to 21 murders prior to his death. All 21 murder cases were closed.

She has won millions of dollars in civil jury trials and settlements.[9] She also won $15.5 million for the false arrest and malicious prosecution of Kevin Fox, who was incarcerated for 8 ½ months for the murder of his 3-year-old daughter.[10] His wife, Melissa, recovered for her loss of consortium and intentional infliction of emotional distress. On appeal, the appellate court reduced the verdict to $8.1 million.[11]

Zellner has appeared on Dateline, 20/20, A & E, Oprah and numerous local news programs. Her cases have been profiled in the New York Times, LA Times Magazine, Boston Herald, National Law Journal, Chicago Tribune, USA Today, American Bar Journal and Chicago Sun Times.

On January 9, 2016, Zellner announced that her firm would be representing Steven Avery, convicted of murder and serving a life sentence in Wisconsin. She will be working with Tricia Bushnell,[12] legal director of the Midwest Innocence Project. His case has become widely known as the subject of Making a Murderer (2015), a 10-episode documentary series on Netflix.

Exonerations

  • Ronnie Bullock spent over 10 years in prison for the kidnapping and rape of a 9-year-old girl and a 12-year-old girl. DNA testing revealed that he was not the culprit.[13]
  • Joseph Burrows spent nearly five years on death row until Zellner persuaded the real killer to confess at a post-conviction hearing.[14]
  • Billy Wardell spent over 10 years in prison for robbery and sexual assault. He was exonerated in 1997 when Zellner convinced prosecutors to agree to DNA testing. It cleared him as the perpetrator.[15]
  • Omar Saunders, Marcellius Bradford, Larry Ollins, and Calvin Ollins were convicted of the kidnapping, rape, and murder of Lori Roscetti, 23-year-old medical student. Bradford served six years in prison following a plea deal, but Saunders and the Ollins cousins had served nearly 15 years in prison before DNA testing was conducted that cleared all four men of the crimes.[16]
  • Kevin Fox was imprisoned for eight months for the murder of his daughter, Riley. Zellner represented Fox until he was cleared by DNA evidence. He won a $15.5 million civil verdict against the government, which was reduced to $8.1 million on appeal.[17]
  • Harold Hill and Dan Young were convicted of the 1990 rape and murder of Kathy Morgan. DNA testing performed in 2004 led to the release of both Hill and Young in 2005.[18]
  • Alprentiss Nash spent more than 17 years in prison for the murder of Leon Stroud. In 2010, Zellner convinced the Illinois Court of Appeals to order DNA testing of the ski mask worn by the perpetrator. This testing led to Nash's exoneration. It matched the real killer, who was already serving time for an unrelated drug crime. A federal civil rights lawsuit against the city of Chicago is pending.[19][needs update]
  • Cesar Munoz was convicted of the 1997 murder of his girlfriend, Magdaliz Rosario. Zellner's firm represented Munoz and won his acquittal in June 2013 after the fourth trial. (The first trial resulted in a hung jury, and the second two resulted in convictions but were reversed on appeal.)[20]
  • Lathierial Boyd served 23 years in prison for the murder of Michael Fleming and the attempted murder of Ricky Warner. His conviction was vacated in 2013 based on evidence of his innocence and prosecutors withholding exculpatory evidence. A $20 million civil rights lawsuit against the city of Chicago and several police officers is pending in federal court.[21][22]
  • Ryan Ferguson was arrested in 2004 for the 2001 murder of Columbia Tribune sports editor Kent Heitholt. He was convicted and sentenced to prison. He was released in November 2013 after Zellner and her firm convinced the only two witnesses against Ferguson, Charles Erickson and Jerry Trump, to admit that they had lied at trial. A $100 million civil rights lawsuit against Boone County, Missouri, the prosecutor, police officers, and others is pending in federal court.[23][needs update]
  • Jerry Hobbs spent five years in jail for the murder of his young daughter and her friend. In 2010, DNA testing led to the apprehension of the real killer. After obtaining his release, Zellner filed a civil rights lawsuit on his behalf, which settled for $7.75 million.[24]
  • James Edwards was convicted of two murders as the result of a false confession. He was exonerated for the murder of Fred Reckling after Zellner filed a motion for DNA testing; the results cleared Edwards as the murderer. Zellner is challenging his other murder conviction, as it was based on the same confession shown to be false because the DNA evidence excluded him as the perpetrator.[25]
  • Mario Casciaro was released in September 2015 after serving four years for the murder of a teenager. The Illinois Second District Appellate Court reversed Casciaro's conviction for intimidation murder. The court ruled that the state had failed to prove the elements of intimidation and that none of the forensic evidence matched the state's theory presented to the jury at Casciaro's second trial. The first trial had resulted in a hung jury.

Civil verdicts

Since 1991, Zellner's firm has obtained nearly $90 million in verdicts and settlements.[26] A number of these represented record civil verdicts in cases involving medical malpractice and civil rights.

  • MaryAnn Martino: A Cook County, Illinois jury found the Illinois Masonic Medical Center liable for $6.5 million after it turned away MaryAnn Martino, who had asked to be admitted for psychiatric treatment. After being turned away, Martino committed suicide. This is the largest Illinois verdict against a hospital in a suicide case.[27]
  • Julisiah Toney: A Cook County, Illinois jury awarded $3 million in damages to a four-year-old girl who had suffered from a brachial plexus injury at birth, resulting in the partial paralysis of her right hand and arm.[28][29]
  • Kewiana Sole was awarded over $2 million as a result of medical malpractice when she was prescribed the wrong medication, leading to brain damage.[citation needed]
  • Cathy Skol: During Skol's fifth pregnancy, Scott Pierce (who was substituting for her regular doctor) refused to give her pain medication, told her she "deserved to feel pain" because she had not given enough advance notice, yelled obscenities at her, talked about performing abortions, arranged the stirrups so as to put Skol in an uncomfortable position, and told Skol that she and her baby might bleed to death, all during Skol's delivery of the child. The jury awarded $1.4 million, $800,000 for emotional distress and $600,000 for loss of normal life. Skol's case set the record for the highest verdict in Illinois for negligent/intentional infliction of emotional distress in a medical malpractice case.[30]
  • Karl Williams: A federal jury awarded Williams $2 million ($1 million in compensatory damages and $1 million in punitive damages) after finding that Ghanshyam Patel was deliberately indifferent to Williams's medical needs, in violation of the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution, when he failed to give adequate care and attention to an eye injury Williams sustained while he was an inmate at Pontiac Correctional Center in Pontiac, Illinois.[31] This is the highest civil rights verdict for medical malpractice in Illinois.[32]
  • Clyde Ray Spencer, a Vancouver, Washington police officer, was framed for the alleged sexual molestation of his two biological children and one step-child. At the time of the investigation, his wife was engaged in an affair with the lead detective on Spencer's case. A federal jury found that the detectives on the case deliberately fabricated evidence that caused Spencer to enter an Alford plea (no contest) and spend 20 years in prison. After Spencer's children grew up, they testified that they had never been abused and that the detectives would not listen when they told them so. Spencer was awarded $9 million in compensatory damages, the highest civil rights verdict in Washington state and the highest involving an Alford plea in the United States.[33][34]
  • Lynn Green sued the owners and building management group of a Chicago building after being bound, gagged, and raped for 40 minutes. A jury found that the building's inadequate security measures contributed to the rape, especially after Zellner pointed out that it was known that there was a rapist loose in the area. Green was awarded $2.5 million in damages, the highest verdict for a rape case in the United States.[35]

Honors

Footnotes

  1. ^ Owen Daniel Thomas :: Father of Kathleen Zellner
  2. ^ Owen Daniel Thomas :: Ekofisk oil discovery
  3. ^ State Bar of IL :: Kathleen Zellner
  4. ^ Pro Bono :: Kathleen Zellner
  5. ^ Joseph Burrows :: Kathleen Zellner, Center for Wrongful Convictions, Northwestern University
  6. ^ Ryan Ferguson :: Kathleen Zellner, Columbian Missourian, 8 February 2010
  7. ^ Ryan Ferguson website : Kathleen Zellner, Justice for Ryan Ferguson website
  8. ^ In re: Ryan Ferguson v. Dave Dormire, 413 S.W.3d 40 (Mo. App. W.D. 2013). Missouri Court of Appeals :: Western District
  9. ^ Verdicts :: Kathleen Zellner
  10. ^ Kevin Fox :: Kathleen Zellner, Daily Herald
  11. ^ Fox v. Hayes, 600 F.3d 819 (7th Cir. 2010). 7th Circuit Court of Appeals
  12. ^ JOI-MARIE MCKENZIE, "Steven Avery from 'Making a Murderer' Gets New Representation", ABC News, 9 January 2016, accessed 12 January 2016
  13. ^ "Exoneration Case Detail: Ronnie Bullock". National Registry of Exonerations. University of Michigan Law School.
  14. ^ "Perjured testimony by the actual killer put Joseph Burrows on death row". Bluhm Legal Clinic, Northwestern Law. Chicago.
  15. ^ "Exoneration Case Detail: Billy Wardell". National Registry of Exonerations. University of Michigan Law School.
  16. ^ "Exoneration Case Detail: Omar Saunders, Marcellius Bradford, Larry Ollins, and Calvin Ollins". National Registry of Exonerations. University of Michigan Law School.
  17. ^ Bryan Smith (July 2006). "The Nightmare: A Look at the Riley Fox Case". Chicago Magazine. Chicago, IL.
  18. ^ "Exoneration Case Detail: Harold Hill and Dan Young". National Registry of Exonerations. University of Michigan Law School.
  19. ^ "Exoneration Case Detail: Alprentiss Nash". National Registry of Exonerations. University of Michigan Law School.
  20. ^ "Exoneration Case Detail: Cesar Munoz". National Registry of Exonerations. University of Michigan Law School.
  21. ^ Rose Bouboushian (2013-10-09). "Decades Lost to Chicago Frame Job, Man Says". Courthouse News. Retrieved 2015-02-23. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  22. ^ Michael Homan (2015-03-01). "Guardian reveals Chicago 'black site'". Indiana Daily Student. Archived from the original on 2015-03-02. Chicago attorney Kathleen Zellner is spearheading an investigation that may produce multiple exonerations of Homan Square detainees. If successful, Zellner may instigate a full-on federal investigation into the happenings of this black site. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  23. ^ "Ryan Ferguson's attorney files $100 million lawsuit". CNN. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  24. ^ "Jerry Hobbs Cleared: Dad Charges in Girls' Murder to go Free, DNA Evidence Links Another Man". Huffington Post.
  25. ^ "Lake County exoneration could ripple beyond Illinois". Chicago Tribune.
  26. ^ "Kathleen T. Zellner & Associates". Jury Verdict Reporter. Law Bulletin Publishing Company. April 29, 2014. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)
  27. ^ "Hospital Gets $6.5 Million Tab in Suicide". Chicago Tribune.
  28. ^ "Birth Injuries". Kathleen T. Zellner & Associates.
  29. ^ "Report of the Committee on Finance". Cook County Board of Commissioners.
  30. ^ "Catherine Skol v. Dr. Scott Pierce". Illinois Jury Verdicts.
  31. ^ "Karl Williams v. Dr. Ghanshyam Patel". Williams v. Patel, 104 F.Supp.2d 984 (2000).
  32. ^ "Kathleen T. Zellner". Leading Lawyers Network.
  33. ^ "Innocent Man Wins $9 Million After Serving 20 Years". NBC Dateline.
  34. ^ "One Man's Fight to Prove His Innocence". Katie Couric.
  35. ^ "Naperville Lawyer Gets Record Award in Rape Suit". Chicago Tribune.
  36. ^ a b c Doug Schneider, Nathaniel Shuda, Nate Beck, "Avery's new lawyer: 'The killer is free' ", Gannett Wisconsin Media, in HTRNews.com, 8 January 2016, accessed 12 January 2016
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