Steven Avery's case was a shocking example of justice denied.

Now lawmakers and others are proposing legislation to help prevent wrongful convictions. Their proposal, Assembly Bill 3492, would be a strong step to protecting the rights of innocent people.

Avery, of Two Rivers, was wrongfully imprisoned for 18 years for a rape and a brutal assault. He was released in 2003 after DNA testing proved his innocence and implicated another man in the crimes.

His plight led Rep. Mark Gundrum, R-New Berlin, to form the Avery Task Force, a group of district attorneys, police officials, judges, lawmakers and victims' rights advocates. The group's proposal would:

Encourage electronic recording of interviews with adult suspects in felony cases.

Require that in the rare case of a court requiring a post-conviction DNA test, that the test be given priority at the state crime laboratory.

Require every law enforcement agency to have a written policy on eyewitness identification procedures.

Allow prosecution of crimes directly related to sexual assaults, such as burglary and battery, beyond current deadlines for filing charges.

Require that evidence critical to establishing guilt or innocence be retained only in the amount needed for a DNA profile.

The bill should be quickly approved after the Legislature returns to the Capitol this month. It would make isn't trapped.

The changes also wouldn't burden the state's taxpayers. A Supreme Court mandate already requires electronic recording of interviews of juvenile suspects. And the bill sets up a fund, supported by a 1 percent increase in a criminal penalty surcharge, to buy recording equipment.

While the bill creates safeguards against convicting the innocent, it also will help Wisconsin's criminal justice system nab and convict the guilty.

Avery lost 18 years of his life, during which he was divorced from his wife and became estranged from his children. Coupled with that immense loss is the suffering of the rape victim. Her real attacker didn't pay for this crime.

The Wisconsin Innocence Project, a UW Law School program that works to free wrongly convicted prisoners, pointed out several flaws in the identification process that led the woman to identify the wrong man. The jury was convinced of his guilt even though 16 witnesses affirmed Avery's alibi.

The woman apologized to Avery in a letter, saying that when she testified in court she honestly believed he was her assailant. But she was wrong.