'I didn't think all of these people would care': first trailer for Making a Murderer Part 2 released

Netflix has released the trailer for the second part of the hit documentary series Making a Murderer, which will arrive on the streaming service on October 19. The two-and-a-half-minute clip introduces Kathleen Zellner, the new lawyer fighting to free Steven Avery, who was convicted for a murder that the series suggests he did not commit. Laura Nirider and Steven Drizin​ from Northwestern University’s Center on Wrongful Convictions of Youth, meanwhile, are fighting to prove that Brendan Dassey's confession to being an accessory was coerced.

"Brendan thinks, if I tell them what they want to hear, I'm gonna go home," explains Drizin in the trailer.

In the new 10-part series, Emmy Award-winning filmmakers Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos return to Wisconsin to pick up the story of the two men, who remain in prison. We see the new lawyers and defence investigators combing the evidence to unpick the authorities' convictions, as well as the effect that the series phenomenon has had on the men's families and the division it has created in the city of Manitowoc. 

 The first series was filmed across 10 years, following Avery's conviction for the rape and attempted murder of a woman named Penny Beerntsen in 1985. Avery spent 18 years in jail before being exonerated in 2003 on the basis of new DNA evidence.

In 2005, both Avery and Dassey were charged with another murder, following the disappearance of photographer Teresa Halbach. Avery was found guilty of first-degree murder, while Dassey was convicted as an accessory to the crime. Avery maintains that he was wrongly convicted, and has petitioned for a retrial, but his appeal was rejected in 2011.

The series itself called into question the guilt of both men, and has since had a real-life side effect: Brendan Dassey's conviction was overturned by a judge at the end of 2016, but his release was blocked at the last minute in February, with the Supreme Court then refusing to hear the case in June.

Over the course of 10 episodes, Making a Murderer Part 2 will follow the legal processes since 2015 and the effect that it has had on their families.

“Steven and Brendan, their families and their legal and investigative teams have once again graciously granted us access, giving us a window into the complex web of American criminal justice,” said Ricciardi and Demos. “Building on Part 1, which documented the experience of the accused, in Part 2, we have chronicled the experience of the convicted and imprisoned, two men each serving life sentences for crimes they maintain they did not commit. We are thrilled to be able to share this new phase of the journey with viewers.”