U.S. Supreme Court
Cert Petition Claims New Evidence Entitles Convicted Killer to Reversal
Posted May 1, 2008, 10:29 am CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss
Former Milwaukee police officer Laurie Bembenek has filed a cert petition with the U.S. Supreme Court that seeks a reversal of her conviction based on new evidence of innocence.
Bembenek pleaded no-contest to second-degree murder in 1992 in the death of her then-husband’s former wife, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports. Prosecutors claim Bembenek gave up her right to appeal when she made the plea, which reduced her sentence to time served.
Bembenek, a former Playboy Club waitress nicknamed “Bambi,” entered the plea after she escaped from prison and fled to Canada.
Bembenek’s lawyer, Mary Woehrer, claims prosecutors withheld key evidence, entitling Bembenek to a hearing. "Powerful new evidence of actual innocence proves that petitioner Laurie Bembenek was wrongfully convicted," Woehrer wrote in the cert petition.