Lynching of a Veteran, Wisconsin Lesbian Fights Wrongful Conviction

Updated – Hope springs eternal in the cold Wisconsin Winter for a woman who joined the U.S. Air Force straight out high school and served honorably for five years.

Most readers know of the appalling miscarriage of justice in Manitowoc County Wisconsin chronicled in the Making a Murderer documentary series.

In Dane County Wisconsin—Madison, Wisconsin no less—Penny Brummer was wrongfully convicted in 1994 of first-degree intentional homicide two years home after her honorable discharge and given a life sentence.

The evidence? There was no evidence, just a repulsive and retrograde bigotry towards out lesbians from the Madison Police Dept and Dane County Sheriff’s Dept. in the 1990s and 12 benighted jurors.

Advocates have a Petition out demanding for a new trial for Penny Brummer, a victim of law enforcement hate. Please sign the petition.

Advocates, a private investigator, and the Brummer family have a plan of action.

Just out of River Valley High School in Spring Green, Wisconsin, Brummer enlisted in the U.S. Air Force serving honorably for five years. She would be accused just two years out of first-degree intentional homicide and given a life sentence in 1994. After all, she was a lesbian and a veteran, so she must be guilty of some violent felony as a civilian. The district attorney’s office is complete shit.

The (late) and disgraced assistant (and self-loathing bi-sexual) D.A. Judy Schwaemle said of the accused, Penny Brummer, at trial, “You are not judging a human being.” One needs to dehumanize an innocent when there is no evidence of the crime being alleged.

In a Madison’s Isthmus (Madison) this January, writer Bill Lueders excoriates the 1994-95 Brummer investigation, arrest, prosecution, trial and conviction (with an eye towards exoneration):

We know police and prosecutors don’t always get it right and are resistant to admitting when they may have gotten it wrong. This is the real world, not Blue Bloods on CBS.

Which brings us to Penny Brummer, convicted of the March 1994 murder of Sarah Gonstead, the best friend of Penny’s female ex-lover, after a night of barhopping. The case has all the hallmarks of wrongful conviction: No prior criminal history on Brummer’s part. No physical evidence tying her to the crime. No credible eyewitnesses, and one manifestly non-credible one.

Brummer had a compelling alibi, in recalling an unlisted program she watched on TV several hours before when Gonstead is believed to have died. Police overlooked leads that pointed to another suspect. Brummer has always maintained her innocence, and her case has long troubled those who make it their business to care about wrongful convictions.

Yet Brummer sits in prison, with no pending appeals. What can we do about it? Sign the petition. Advocates will handle the rest.

Last month, Brummer’s supporters announced a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Gonstead’s killer, which is perhaps what it will take to get Brummer out of prison. They do have a website (Who Killed Sarah), which lists several ways to ‘Take Action,’ and a hotline number (800-407-1178) for tips.

Nancy Brummer, Penny’s mom, blames her daughter’s conviction on the anti-lesbian bias, saying police and prosecutors ‘concocted a theory about jealousy among lesbians,’ something that ‘would not happen today.’ As far back as 1995, the case drew national attention in The Advocate, a gay and lesbian magazine, for its overtones of anti-gay bigotry. The publication said prosecutors ‘paint[ed] a picture of a twisted lesbian love triangle.’ [The persecution was full of shit].

According to the 2005 book, Who Killed Sarah?, ‘the screening questions for potential jurors excluded ‘only those who held extreme views,’ like agreeing that lesbians are more violent than other people. From the book: ‘Potential jurors were given a range of answers to describe their attitudes toward homosexuality in general. The most frequent response was ‘tolerant but not accepting.’ Many indicated that they view homosexuality as morally wrong, though some refined that later during individual interviews by drawing a distinction between homosexual orientation and homosexual acts.’

Dane County District Attorney, Ismael R. Ozanne could today vacate and stipulate a new trial be granted.

As Sheila Berry said in 2013: “The most important evidence that led to Penny’s conviction was that she is a lesbian. If she had been straight, she wouldn’t have been a suspect at all,” (Huffington Post)

Ms. Berry is the author of Who Killed Sarah? She penned the Brummer book after her daughter read a 1995 piece in The Advocate (Ingrid Ricks) and asked her mother, a paralegal and victim’s advocate, to do something.

So should we all.

Stay tuned. No one is this gong to let this go until Penny Brummer is exonerated or breathes the air again as a free woman. The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Innocence Project remains in close communication with the Brummer family and advocates.