The Netflix documentary series “Making a Murderer” has convinced many people that Wisconsin man Steven Avery is innocent in the death of photographer Teresa Halbach.
Kenneth Petersen definitely isn’t one of them.
Petersen, the Manitowoc County, Wisconsin, sheriff at the time of Avery’s arrest for murder in 2005, appeared on “Dr. Phil” to discuss the case.
Not only does Petersen, now retired from the force, believe that Avery is guilty — he feels that Avery would take another life if he was released from prison.
“I think he would kill again,” Petersen told Dr. Phil McGraw. “Prison is a good place for him. He can’t hurt anybody and no one can hurt him.”
Petersen also opined that it’s unlikely Avery will get another crack at freedom.
“If you’re going to get the case reopened, you’re going to have to find new evidence, but I don’t think any exists,” Petersen said.
McGraw is devoting Friday and Monday’s episodes to the Avery case. On Monday, in addition to continuing his conversation with Petersen, he speaks to Avery’s former fiancée, Sandra Greenman, who perhaps not surprisingly has a different perspective on the matter.
“I personally believe that he’s innocent. I needed to show him that I was behind him,” Greenman said of her recent decision to visit Avery in prison.
That clashes with the account of another Avery ex-fiancée, Jodi Stachowski, who in an interview with HLN’s Nancy Grace on called him “a monster.”
“The truth,” Stachowski said when asked about what she wanted people to know, “what a monster he is. He’s not innocent.”
Watch a clip from McGraw’s interview with Petersen below.