The case of Steven Avery, explored in Netflix’s “Making a Murderer,” is still evolving, even five months after the series’ premiere.
A lot of change has occurred since the show first aired on December 18, 2015, with Avery hiring a new lawyer, Kathleen Zellner, to help him appeal his conviction of the 2005 murder of Teresa Halbach. Avery’s former attorneys, Jerry Buting and Dean Strang, decided to go on a national tour to open up about the injustice of the case.
And in recent months, Zellner has said that she has discovered a “couple” of other suspects in the case, although she didn’t reveal any names because she didn’t want “him to run.”
And former prosecutor Ken Kratz admitted to suicidal thoughts amid being targeted by Avery supporters after the Netflix show aired.
See below for the latest updates in Avery’ case.
1. Kathleen Zellner says there are “a couple” of new suspects in the case
In March, Zellner said that she had identified multiple suspects in the murder Halbach.
In an in-depth profile published by Newsweek, Kathleen Zellner said that she has found “a couple” of suspects, both men who knew Halbach.
“We have a couple,” Zellner, who specializes in wrongful convictions, said. “I’d say there’s one, leading the pack by a lot. But I don’t want to scare him off, I don’t want him to run.”
2. Brendan Dassey is waiting on a federal habeas petition in Milwaukee
Dean Strang told A.V. Club on Tuesday that Dassey is “waiting in federal district court in Milwaukee on a federal habeas petition, so it’s at the trial level in federal court.”
According to Cornell Law, a writ of habeas corpus “is used to bring a prisoner or other detainee (e.g. institutionalized mental patient) before the court to determine if the person’s imprisonment or detention is lawful. A habeas petition proceeds as a civil action against the State agent (usually a warden) who holds the defendant in custody.”
Speaking to TimeOut London, the filmmakers said that, “Technically speaking, Brendan’s case is where it was when the series finished. His habeas petition is sitting on the federal magistrate’s desk. Everybody is awaiting the magistrate’s decision on his case. There’s really no schedule or timetable for it. His lawyers told us they might have one or two days’ notice.”
3. Steven Avery is done with his appeal
In the same interview, Strang said that Avery is done with his appeal and must wait until Zellner and others working for him find new evidence for a potential new trial.
4. Laura Ricciardi wants to include Zellner in sequel
One of the filmmakers, Laura Ricciardi, told TimeOut London that she and Moira Demos have “been talking to Kathleen Zellner about the potential of filming with her and continuing the story.”
5. Piers Morgan show was inspired by “MaM”
According to RadioTimes.com, Piers Morgan was inspired by “Making a Murderer” to travel the U.S. and interview convicted women.
“We were drawn by the ‘Making a Murderer’ series on Netflix to try and do a real journalistic number on these cases, try and get inside the mind of murderers,” RadioTimes.com quoted him as saying. “What’s fascinating is you couldn’t really predict any of these three people would have done what they did. You think, ‘What does cause this sort of thing?’”
The show airs tonight on ITV in the U.K.
6. Ken Kratz admitted to suicidal thoughts
Ken Kratz told Dr. Drew that he had suicidal thoughts after “this whole thing kind of blew up,” referring to the Avery Case and an Associated Press report exposing racy texts he sent to a 25-year-old woman while Kratz was prosecuting her ex-boyfriend.
“With the pressures I was under after the Avery case, this all began, I would suspect, as a result of the Avery case. It was a case that I was very much in the public eye, very much in the limelight for 18 straight months we were on the front page and really in a very, very high-profile case. And then it all stopped,” Kratz told Dr. Drew.
“After this whole thing kind of blew up I became suicidal,” said Kratz. “I actually put a gun in my mouth and was really, really having a hard time with having kind of gone from very well-respected and obviously very into my job to really vilified within maybe a 48- or 72-hour period.”