Wisconsin Supreme Court Declines To Hear Slender Man Appeal

WAUKESHA, WI— The Wisconsin Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal on Friday for one of the girls involved in the Slender Man case.

The lawyer for Morgan Geyser argued the case in the Wisconsin Supreme Court in August.

Geyser's attorney Matthew Pinix said Geyser should have been charged with attempted second-degree intentional homicide in juvenile court.

Pinix sent the following statement to Patch:

"The Wisconsin Supreme Court’s denial of Morgan’s petition has only affirmed what is by now apparent to every criminal defendant who has ever tread an appeal in this state: our state’s jurisprudence prioritizes the affirmation of convictions over the constitutional rights of its citizens.

Not one appellate court concluded that it was proper for police to question Morgan in the way that they did, and yet those same courts let her conviction stand. Fortunately, the Wisconsin state courts are not the last bastion of hope for criminal defendants, and I am confident that Morgan will want to continue her fight in federal court."

Morgan Geyser, one of two Waukesha girls convicted with stabbing a classmate 19 times to satisfy the fictional horror character Slender Man, lost her appeal in August.

In his petition to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, Pinix, argued self-defense as Geyser was scared Slender Man would kill her family if she didn't kill Leutner.

On May 31, 2014, 12-year-old Morgan Geyser, with the aid of Anissa Weier, who was also 12, repeatedly stabbed their classmate Payton Leutner.

Geyser and Weier were charged in adult court with attempted first-degree intentional homicide, with the use of a dangerous weapon, as parties to the crime.

Despite the efforts of attorneys for Geyser and Weier to convince the court the charge should be reduced to attempted second-degree intentional homicide—resulting in a loss of exclusive original adult-court jurisdiction—the court found probable cause that both defendants committed attempted first-degree intentional homicide and bound them over for trial in adult court.

"In this appeal, Geyser claims the court erred in binding her over rather than discharging her from adult court," according to appeal court documents.

Wisconsin's 2nd District Court of Appeals found that Waukesha County Circuit Court accurately kept the case in adult court.

"On the first issue, we conclude the court did not err as it properly found probable cause that Geyser committed attempted first-degree intentional homicide," court documents said.

The 2nd District Appeals court previously affirmed a lower court's determination that it was reasonable to try both girls as adults. Citing an earlier ruling, the appeals court said if the girls were found guilty in the juvenile system they would be released at age 18 with no supervision or mental health treatment.

Geyser's attorney also argued to suppress a statement Geyser made to Waukesha Police Department Detective Thomas Casey following the attack.

According to the documents, Geyser "did not knowingly, intelligently, and voluntarily waive her Miranda rights prior to making the statement."

In 2017, Geyser pleaded guilty in a deal that allowed her to avoid prison and instead receive mental health treatment.

In 2018, Geyser was sentenced to 40 years in a mental institution. The same year a jury found Geyser's co-defendant, Anissa Weier, was mentally ill at the time of the attack on Leutner. A judge ordered Weier to serve up to 25 years in a mental institution with the possible release after three years.