Hit Netflix series Making a Murderer has revealed what appear to be jaw-dropping flaws in the case and in the US legal system.
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| Freed ... Avery, who spent 18 years in jail for a rape he didn't commit, at his scrapyard in 2003 |
Steven Avery had been preparing to sue local officials after being wrongfully jailed for rape when the same sheriff’s department arrested him over the killing of a young woman.
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| Arrested ... Avery in custody over the murder of 25-year-old Teresa Halbech |
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Filmmakers Moira Demos and Laura Ricciardi spent more than ten years piecing together the twists and turns of the story for the ten-part series on the streaming service.
Such is its power, more than 330,000 people have now signed a petition calling on President Obama to free Avery, who is still in jail for the murder of 25-year-old photographer Teresa Halbach.
At the centre of their programme is one crucial question: Did the police frame Avery as payback for his lawsuit? Or did 18 years in prison for a rape he did not commit turn him into a man capable of murder?
The odds were stacked against Avery, now 53, from the beginning.
In Manitowoc County, Wisconsin, the Avery family, who ran a scrapyard, were seen as trouble-making hicks.
From a young age Avery had brushes with the law. including a spell in prison for burglary, an incident in which he ran his cousin of the road and a charge of animal cruelty after he set a cat on fire.
He was lower class and of below-average intelligence and apparently did not own any underwear.
In short, he was a social outcast and an easy scapegoat.
In 1985, Avery was arrested for the rape of Penny Beerntsen, 36, who was attacked as she jogged along a beach.
Despite more than 16 alibi witnesses, and a raft of evidence suggesting he could not have been the perpetrator, Avery was found guilty and sentenced to 32 years in jail.
In 2003, after he had
already served 18 years of his sentence, DNA evidence proved the real
attacker was a serial rapist, Gregory Allen.When Avery was released from prison, he said: “I don’t blame the victim, what happened to her was horrible. It’s the cops that set me up.”
Determined to be compensated for the miscarriage of justice, Avery filed a lawsuit against the local authorities and the prosecutor who had put him in jail, seeking £24.6million damages.
What happened next was the first of many dark twists revealed by the ten-hour series, whose episodes were all released in one go,
Two years after his release, with his civil case still unresolved, Avery was arrested for Halbach’s murder.
Again, he was found guilty and this time, jailed for life.
The evidence was compelling. On the day Teresa disappeared, she was at the Avery scrapyard to take pictures of a car for a magazine.
Avery was one of the last to see her alive, her car was still at the yard and the key to it was found in the bedroom of his trailer.
His blood was found in her car and a bullet casing with his DNA on was found in his garage.
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| Sgt Colborn at Avery's trial |
Dassey was also sentenced to life for the crime — but his confession is far from reliable. He has learning difficulties and a lower-than-average IQ, but was repeatedly questioned alone for hours. The defence suggested he was coerced into making his confession, which he later retracted.
Avery’s defence team also found an 11-year-old vial of Avery’s blood that had apparently been tampered with, suggesting that police had the chance to plant it at the scene.
The key to Halbach’s car, which was presented as vital evidence by prosecutors, was missed in several of the initial searches of Avery’s property — then found in plain sight. Could it have been planted too?
And if the victim was killed in Avery’s bedroom or garage, as prosecutors alleged, then why was none of her blood, hair, sweat or skin found at either location?
Fragments of her bones were, however, found at another location miles away from Avery’s land. It seems that a shadowy line-up of police and officials could have conspired to frame Avery and save the county paying out for his original wrongful conviction.
Police officers James Lenk and Andrew Colborn were involved in both the 1985 rape investigation and the 2005 murder case and had a motive to cover up their negligence. Former Manitowoc County sheriff Ken Petersen, who incorrectly arrested Avery for the 1985 rape, told reporters it would have been “easier to kill” Avery than to frame him.
Ken Kratz, the special prosecutor in the murder trial, refused to talk to the filmmakers. But he has since accused them of “presenting misinformation” and intentionally withholding facts which would convince viewers Avery was guilty.
This is the same man who was forced to resign in 2010 after being caught sexually harassing domestic abuse victims.
Convincing as the series is, it won’t be enough on its own to get Avery out of jail. The governor of Wisconsin, Scott Walker, has already ruled out a pardon despite mounting public pressure. President Obama cannot intervene because the conviction was handed down in a state rather than a federal court.
Hacking group Anonymous claims it is going to release vital documents that could be the fresh evidence Avery needs for a retrial. Meanwhile, the filmmakers themselves insist they never set out to prove Avery’s innocence. Instead, they say they wanted to paint a picture of the US legal system and show its flaws.
Laura Ricciardi says: “The takeaway is that the American criminal justice system is in peril. We, as American people, should have concerns about that system. “Why aren’t there more safeguards to protect against someone who had been wrongly convicted?”
STEVEN AVERY’S defence lawyers have found themselves to be unlikely sex symbols thanks to the series.
Dean Strang and Jerome Buting have inspired numerous declarations of love on Twitter. One woman wrote: “Dean Strang . . . more like Dream Strang #strangcrush.”
When asked about the attention, Strang said: “My wife finds this very, very hard to believe.
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