A woman requesting her release in the Slender Man stabbing asks for forgiveness and chance to be a ‘productive’ member of society – Milwaukee Journal…

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Anissa Weier is seen here being led into a courtroom for her sentencing hearing in December 2017. Weier, who has spent more than three years in a state mental hospital, said in order to become a productive member of society a judge should grant her conditional release.(Photo: Michael Sears/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

Anissa Weier, one of the Waukesha girls convicted in theSlender Man stabbing, says she has learned to forgive herself for her role in the crime and wants the chance to prove that she can be a "productive member of society."

In a letter filed with the court at a hearing on Wednesday, Weier, now 19 years old, asked a judge for her conditional release from a state mental hospital, nearly seven years after she and her friend set out to kill a classmate when they were 12 years old.

A decision won't be made until at least another two months after the state and defense have time to respond to reports filed by doctors who evaluated Weier in recent months.

In December 2017, Waukesha County Circuit Judge Michael Bohren committed Weierto the maximum of 25 years to the Winnebago Mental Health Institute after a jury foundhernot criminally responsible for her role in the near fatal stabbing of Payton Leutner, who was her sixth-grade classmate at the time. The crimegained worldwide coverage after Weier and Morgan Geyser said they committed the act to appease a fictional online horror character named Slender Man.

As part of her plea in 2017, Weier agreed she wouldn't request her release for at least three years.

Weier, who petitioned to be released in November, briefly spoke in court on Wednesday when asked two questions by Bohren. Her letter portrays someone who is remorseful, has taken her treatment seriously, and accepted her part in the crime while understanding she isn't a finished product.

"I am not saying I am done with treatment," Weier said. "I am saying that I have exhausted all the resources available to me at the Winnebago Mental Health Institute. If I am to become a productive member of society, I need to be a part of society."

Weier's statementswill be used when the state formulates its brief to the court, due by March 26, Waukesha County deputy district attorneyTed S. Szczupakiewicz said.Szczupakiewicz said hehas been in contact with Leutner and her parents on how the state is proceeding.

The defense will then have until April 9 to respond. Aconditional release hearing is scheduled for June 11.

The state and defense don't plan to call on the psychologists and psychiatrists who evaluated Weier to testify on their reports, which Bohren said are "lengthy and thorough."

Maura McMahon, Weier's attorney, said in a message to the Journal Sentinel the doctor's reports "all find Anissa qualifies for conditional release."

"Arguments oftentimes in very serious matters and complicated, sophisticated matters can oftentimes be best presented by written arguments that can be amplified through oral arguments," Bohren said Wednesday.

Bohren must decide whether Weier poses a significant risk to herself or others or ofseriously damagingproperty if conditionally released.

If she is released, Weier would be assigned case managers through the state's Department of Health Servicesthat would provide services to her until she is 37, the length of her commitment. She was credited with the 3 years she served at the West Bend Juvenile Detention Center as her case played out.

If Bohren denies Weier's request, she would return to Winnebago for continued treatment. She would have to wait another six months before petitioning the court again.

RELATED: Here's a question-and-answer on what we know ahead of Anissa Weier's release hearing

Bohren has denied many requests made by Weier and Geyser over the years, including having the case moved to the juvenile court system.

"It was a planned murderby kids," Bohren said at Weier's sentencing hearing. "We can't forget the goal was to kill."

Doctors have testified that Weierwas suffering from a shared delusional disorder that was magnified by her friendshipwith Geyser, who had the early stages of schizophrenia, and their belief that Slender Manwould harm them or their families if they didn't kill someone. Geyser stabbed Leutner 19 times in a wooded park on May 31, 2014, in Waukesha with Weier telling her to "go ballistic." They told authorities they planned to live with Slender Man in a mansion hundreds of miles away and become his proxies. Police arrested Weier and Geyser hours later on the side of a road.

Anissa Weier, who has been committed for 25 years for her role in the 2014 Slender Man stabbing, said in a letter filed on Wednesday that "I hate my actions on May 31, but through countless hours of therapy I no longer hate myself for them."(Photo: C.T. Kruger / Now News Group)

Leutner was found by a passing bicyclist and survived the attack but would have a long recovery.

"I hate my actions on May 31, but through countless hours of therapy I no longer hate myself for them," Weier wrote. "I have forgiven myself for my participations in those events, and I ask that anyone affected forgive me as well. I have learned that forgiveness is a process of healing that helps release the pain of the past. I no longer want to be a source of pain in my community, and that is why I ask for forgiveness."

Charged initially with attempted first-degree intentional homicide, Weier eventually pleaded guilty to attempted second-degree intentionalhomicide. Ajury later accepted her insanity defense by finding her not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect, which avoided her prison time.

TIMELINE: How the Waukesha Slender Man stabbing case played out over the years

The Slender Man stabbing case, centered on Morgan Geyser (left) and Anissa Weier, has ended. Geyser and Weier were 12 when they were charged as adults after nearly stabbing their classmate, Payton Leutner, to death in May 2014.

Geyser, whoseschizophrenia was diagnosed while she was in jail,reached a plea with the state to avoid a trial.Geyser receiveda 40-year commitment to a state mental hospital.

During a "20/20" special in 2019, Leutner said she doesn't fear for the eventual releases of Geyser and Weier but that she still slept with a scissors under her bed.

"I am sorry and deeply regretful for the agony, pain and fear I have caused not only Payton and her family, but my community as well," Weier wrote.

Weier said when she's released she wants to get "someformof higher education" and that she's committed to her health and using this "negative situation and publicity for something good." She impliedthis could be through helping others with mental illness.

Weier said in her letter she has "taken care of" her mental health by participatingin all aspects of hertreatment, and maintaining 100% medication adherence,though she admits she's far from a perfect person.

"Sometimes I take my medications a little late because life gets in the way. Sometimes I lose my way and down seems up, though only for a short period of time because Ive learned to talk about whats going on so I dont become a danger again," Weier wrote.

ContactChristopher Kuhagen at (262) 446-6634or christopher.kuhagen@jrn.com. Followhim on Twitter at @ckuhagenand our newsroom Instagram accounts at MyCommunityNow and Lake Country Now.

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A woman requesting her release in the Slender Man stabbing asks for forgiveness and chance to be a 'productive' member of society - Milwaukee Journal...