“There is a documentary series on Netflix called “Making a Murderer”. He was arrested with her murder while he was pursuing a $36 million (£24 million) lawsuit against police after he previously spent 18 years in prison for a rape he did not commit. As the series would suggest, these supporters feel Avery has been wrongfully convicted of murdering Teresa Halbach.
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The obsession is so real that thousands of people have signed a petition asking for the pardon of Steven Avery, who the documentary claims was wrongfully convicted. Some people – particularly officials in Manitowoc County – are accusing the filmmakers of bias towards the Avery family and leaving out key pieces of evidence, but both Demos and Ricciardi disagree. They are still in contact with and recording Avery, who is serving his sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
But there’s a problem: Obama can’t pardon Avery or Dassey because they’re state prisoners, and the president’s pardon power is constitutionally limited to federal crimes.
Steven Avery, who is serving a life sentence following a murder conviction in Wisconsin, has now received about 240,000 signatures in online petitions calling for his pardon. “Our partnership with Netflix has allowed us to tell this story in a way that wouldn’t have been possible anywhere else”, directors Ricciardi and Demos said in a statement when the show was announced.
Filmmakers Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos followed their subjects for 10 years starting in 2005, and Making a Murderer has thoroughly convinced some of its viewers that Avery was wrongly convicted a second time.
The White House will be forced to issue an official response to the petition if it reaches 100,000 signatures.
Making a Murderer began streaming on Netflix in December, receiving favorable reviews from critics and viewers and comparisons to popular podcast series Serial and HBO’s Jinx.
Combined, as of this posting, the petitions have yielded 204,139 signatures.
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Meanwhile, the lead prosecutor in the case, Ken Kratz, has denounced the documentary as biased in favor of the defense.
