Making A Murderer to get sequel series on Netflix

Stephen Avery (Credit: Netflix)
Stephen Avery (Credit: Netflix)

Making A Murderer is to get a sequel series on Netflix, following up the case of the murder of Teresa Halbach in 2005, and the conviction of Steven Avery and his nephew Brendan Dassey for the crime.

Convicting A Murderer will boast ‘unprecedented access’ to the district attorney Ken Kratz, the lead investigator Tom Fassbender, ‘and other major players in State v. Avery’.

Though the first series, made by Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos, was a viral hit for Netflix, it came under heavy scrutiny over its balance, and its suggestion that Steven Avery was not responsible for the murder of Halbach.

Filmmaker Shawn Rech, who will make the follow-up series, admits that the first series was flawed.

“When Making A Murderer was produced, many on the law enforcement side of the story could not, or would not, participate in the series, which resulted in a one-sided analysis of the case,” he said.

“This docu-series will examine the case and the allegations of police wrongdoing from a broader perspective. It will also share with viewers the traumatic effects of being found guilty and vilified in the court of public opinion.

Brendan Dassey (Credit: Dan Powers/AP)
Brendan Dassey (Credit: Dan Powers/AP)

“We fight for the truth. We’ll present all of the evidence in the Avery case from the perspective of both the prosecution and the defense and see if viewers feel the same way they did two years ago following the first season of Making A Murderer.”

Last year, Ricciardi defended her series, but admitted that evidence was omitted from the program.

“We’re not prosecutors, we’re not defense attorneys, we do not set out to convict or exonerate anyone,” she told The Guardian.

“We set out to examine the criminal justice system and how it’s functioning today. It would have been impossible for us to include every piece of evidence submitted to the court. So we took our cues from the prosecution, what they thought was the most compelling evidence. That’s what we included.

“Of course we left out evidence. There would have been no other way of doing it. We were not putting on a trial, but a film. Of what was omitted, the question is: was it really significant? The secret is no.”

Steven Avery was convicted of the murder of Teresa Halbach in 2007, as was his nephew Brendan Dassey.

The first series implied that police in Manitowoc County, Wisconsin, coaxed a confession from Dassey following his arrest.

Last December, his conviction was upheld following an appeal, which determined that Dassey’s confession was properly obtained.

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