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‘Though what you see playing out in Making a Murderer was not unique to this story, these are things that happen every day in this country, there are things that are special about this case, and the fact there were people involved in the investigation that had a vested interest in the outcome of the trial is really questionable here in terms of their liability.’ – Moira Demos
Spoiler alert! If you haven’t seen Making a Murderer yet, best not read any further.
MAKING A MURDERER has been an absolute phenomenon – but when its directors first started filming the series, they had no idea it would would end up going the way it did.
The Netflix series documents 10 years in the life of Steven Avery, a Wisconsin man who spent 18 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit, only to end up accused of another, more serious crime just two years later.
By the end of the 10-part Netflix series Making a Murderer – which you no doubt binge-watched over two days during the Christmas holidays like the rest of us – Steven Avery is in jail, and so is his nephew Brendan Dassey.
You’re left with many questions after watching it:
Did he really murder young photographer Teresa Halbach and burn her body on his land? And did he get his nephew Brendan Dassey to help in the killing? Did Avery and Dassey get a fair trial? Were they framed? Why did some of what Manitowoc Sherriff’s Department did in relation to the case feel so, well, odd?
‘When we started this, there wasn’t an outlet for a series’
Moira Demos and Laura Ricciardi are the two women behind the show. They first started filming when Steven Avery’s second trial began, and ended up moving to Manitowoc as the trial got underway.
When they began the project, there was no ground-breaking Netflix streaming service. ‘Binge-watching’, though it undoubtedly happened, did not have the cultural hold it has now. Streaming an hour-long documentary on the internet ate away at your dial-up connection.
In other words, the landscape was very, very different.
“When we started this, there really wasn’t an outlet for a series that we could see. And frankly when we started this we didn’t know it would be a series,” Moira Demos said in an interview with TheJournal.ie.
“We thought this would be a documentary feature, we thought we would compare Steven’s past experiences to his current experiences. He was supposed to go to trial within a few months, there was a sort of comforting structure to that.”
But as you know, in the middle of episode three there were major developments “that blew this case wide open”.
That was the moment they decided they were determined to tell the story “in the format the story needed to be told”.
“We were committed to doing that,” said Demos. “It was a struggle when there were no outlets that had the infrastructure to support a series, but what was important to us was to get this story out to the world. So we were going to finish it one way or another and deal with distribution after the fact.”
“We didn’t have funds – but we did have time”
The documentary was also self-financed. “We didn’t have fund, but what we did have was time, and that really allowed us to cover the story in depth and to do it as responsibly and thoroughly as possible,” said Ricciardi. They had over 1000 hours of footage.
Ricciardi described their series as “very much an exploration of the extent to which the [judicial] system had evolved from the time since Steven’s initial wrongful conviction in 1985″ to the second case.
They wanted to explore “to what extent the system would be reliable in 2005 than it had been the previous 20 years”.
What they found was that, despite some advances, there is still a “very long way to go”. “I think that even just looking at Brendan Dassey’s case illustrates how much room for improvement there is in the American justice system,” said Ricciardi.
She describes the pair as being “uniquely positioned”.
“We are able to, I think, provide a service to viewers in a sense [of] provid[ing] them with a type of storytelling they can’t find elsewhere. But the beauty of it is there is room for all types of storytelling.
The corporate media and daily news media has its place and documentarians, longer form storytelling, has its place.
“You don’t want jurors with pre-conceived notions”
For Irish viewers, the pre-trial court reporting shown on Making a Murderer is remarkable, in that it makes statements about Avery that would never be shown on Irish TV.
“My take on the pre-trial coverage was it had the potential to be incredibly prejudicial,” said Ricciardi. “The local market was saturated, there was daily coverage of Steven Avery’s case and the Halbach case.”
Ricciardi said she and Demos “value and respect the Constitution and freedom of the press” but believe the pre-trial reporting “needs to be responsible and it needs to factor in of course the extent to which pre-trial publicity can prejudice an accused’s right to a fair trial”.
She pointed out how the community had some history with Steven Avery, who was already a very high-profile man.
“I sat through jury selection in Steven’s case and it was really difficult for the parties involved to try and find anyone in that jury pool who didn’t know something about Steven Avery and the Halbach case,” added Ricciardi. “And I think that’s really troubling when an accused wants to find a jury of their peers in the county in which they live. Because you don’t want jurors coming to the trial with pre-conceived notions.”
What do his family think?
Somewhat remarkably – though perhaps understandingly, given his situation – one of the only people who hasn’t seen Making a Murderer is Steven Avery himself.
His mother and father have seen it, and Ricciardi reports “they were moved by it and they thought it was a fair portrayal of the family, what their experience was like”.
Avery did ask permission from his prison warden and social worker at the maximum security prison he’s in to watch the series, but they denied him the request.
Were the family surprised at the response from across the world to their story? ”I’m not sure, they didn’t say they were surprised,” said Demos. “I think they were touched and impressed by an outpouring of support because that is not something they felt through the last eight years.”
“I think they’re getting used to that and trying to figure out how to navigate that, but the main thing for them was ‘we can have a voice’, to have people hear from them directly.”
The family, said Ricciardi, had felt very embraced by the public for the two years following the overturning of Avery’s wrongful conviction.
But with the dawn of the second trial, they have “been ostracised, vilified and been hurt, essentially, by the public response and media coverage”.
Ricciardi and Demos were given incredible access to the Avery family, and it’s that which helps bring the documentary from a courtroom drama to a domestic one.
Seeing the sadness, hurt and confusion in his parents’ eyes – and the changing minds of other family members – brings another human level to the series.
“I think that’s one of the reasons they were open to having us enter their lives, essentially. We made it clear to them we were not there to judge them, we were there to listen and to give them a voice and I think they saw the value in that, we established a rapport with them and we built trust with them and wanted to treat their entire story as responsibly as possible,” said Demos.
Accusations of misinformation
One of the main figures in Making a Murderer is the soft-voiced prosecutor Ken Kratz, who at one critical point is seen relishing the announcement of Brendan Dassey’s detailed statement to investigators on Teresa Halbach’s murder.
He recently alleged that viewers of the series didn’t get to see important evidence shown to the jury. In an interview, Kratz stated that the series “really presents misinformation”, the New York Times reported.
The directors refute his claims.
“I’m not surprised he is coming out swinging now,” said Demos. “What is more disappointing, frankly, is, at least in the States, the corporate media is giving this man a platform.”
He is going on television and lodging accusations against us. Much of what he says, simply his facts are not true. It’s not about ‘do we include it, do we not include it’, they simply are not facts. So as far as whatever evidence he’s pointing to, we followed this case for two years. What he is talking about now are never pieces of evidence he hung his case on. These were circumstantial pieces, some of which didn’t even come into the trial, when they did come into the trial the prosecution would exclude them on a particular point. These were contested facts.
Both women feel that Kratz is trying to hijack the conversation about Avery’s conviction.
“[He is doing that] by focusing on evidence, by focusing on innocence or guilt, making that the national debate or the international debate,” said Demos.
“We really are only talking about three episodes, and it’s a 10-episode series and there’s a lots of stuff that Kratz and others don’t want people talking about from those other episodes. So we sort of have to look at people’s motivations here.”
Inside the courtroom
The courtroom and interview room footage is key in how Making a Murderer is able to grab viewers. We are pulled into the court, we get to hear the words as they were said, and get to see the reactions of those present. As we watch, the whole case – troubling as it is in points – unfolds before us.
For those who thought it might be difficult to get hold of such footage, it transpires that Ricciardi and Demos were very lucky that it was in Manitowoc where all of this occurred.
“We were pretty fortunate this playing out in Wisconsin, as Wisconsin has very advanced public records law,” said Ricciardi. “So we didn’t really find challenges in terms of acquiring footage, the challenges we faced were with respect to preserving our own footage.”
That challenge came from one Ken Kratz. They wrote to Kratz in 2006, inviting him to participate in the documentary while being mindful of the process. They never received a response.
“Instead, two months later he tried to subpoena our footage,” recalled Ricciardi.
“We had to face this new unexpected challenge of trying to preserve our own footage. We actually had to hire an attorney and essentially get back into litigation.”
Demos described Kratz as “very conveniently but not very wisely strategically recycling a losing argument he made in 2006 in connection with his subpoena”.
At that time he argued to Steven’s judge in the Halbach case that we and our company were an investigative arm of the defence and the judge actually ruled in our favour and said we were entitled to the same privilege as journalists, so we were protected by the first amendment and the State could not take our footage away from us or demand copies of our footage. He lost that argument then but for whatever reason he thinks it’s appropriate to reuse it now.
Future trials
What about the future? Avery now has new lawyers, and there is a push to get him a re-trial.
“We are prepared to follow the story developments,” said Demos.
“If either Stephen or Brendan got a new trial I think we would want to document it and document the process. But when you’re following real life you don’t know what is going to happen. You are prepared but you can’t really plan.”
Asked about the flaws in the judiciary which making the documentary highlighted for them, Demos said “that’s the question we want our viewers to be asking – it’s a complicated question and there are many avenues to take it.”
“One thing I would definitely say is pervasive is what appears to be a lack of accountability in our justice system,” she continued.
On a State level “things are just going along”, added Demos, outlining some stark facts in relation to Avery’s case:
We see that in the series, we see the Wisconsin attorney general issue a report that nobody did anything wrong in 1985. When you see evidence of what happened in 1985, that’s a terrifying fact, that the State’s top law enforcement issues that ruling.
We see that with the Department of Justice and how they handled things with Ken Kratz in episode 10. If there isn’t accountability, it’s not that surprising that things go a little bit off the rails and there’s room for perversion of the system at that point.
Added Ricciardi: “I think there were a range of problems that are illustrated in Stephen’s wrong conviction.”
She points to how the Penny Beersten case was handled, and how quickly Steven Avery was brought into it.
“It seems that there was an incredible rush to judgement when Penny Beernsten first gave her description of the assailant, to the extent it’s true that law enforcement official mentioned Steven Avery’s name to a victim eye witness,” said Ricciardi.
“That’s very troubling and that really set in motion actions that very quickly would lead to Steven Avery’s arrest, he was arrested the very same day Penny Beernsten was attacked.”
In Steven’s federal civil rights lawsuit, law enforcement were accused of failure to turn over potential exculpatory evidence. “That really begs the question of why prosecutors are actually seeking justice, and [if] they come across evidence that would tend to point away from the accused, why would they not voluntarily share that with the defence?” asked Ricciardi.
“To us, that gets to one of the underlying problems with the American criminal justice system,” she said. “As Dean Strang says, there’s a false sense of certitude in the key players in the system and just an indignance that they are getting it right.”
She and Demos argue that much of this pressure comes from the American public itself, with elected officials taking their cues from constituents. “If their constituents are allowing them to run on platforms that are tough on crime as opposed to the administration of justice, that is problematic,” said Ricciardi.
“So if we American people own that responsibility and signal to elected officials that we value justice over winning at all costs, I think that can ignite a change.”
Though it is unclear at this point whether Steven Avery will get a new trial, it is clear that this series has created a push to have his situation looked at.
With new lawyers, and an international conversation taking place around his and Brendan Dassey’s convictions, we can expect that Making a Murderer won’t be the last we’ll see of Steven Avery.
What do you think of the series? Tell us in the comments.
Making a Murderer is available to watch on Netflix now.
Who gives a flying fiddlers!
They know exactly where you live. They know what you like. They know the porn sites you look up, they know that you surf the internet looking at grotesque acts of bestiality. Then they serve you adverts from animal porn stars and you click on it. They know your dirty little secrets and they make money from it.
That’s probably just you Inda.
Can someone tell me please, is the issue not parallel to how Google manage browsing histories? And they have a 1 button… Isn’t that the same thing? If so, why have the same people not challenged Google too… ?? Thanks in advance.
I don’t get it, people volunteer to join Facebook. Are European governments afraid of feedback they can’t control?
People are clearly missing the point here, Its not about being a member of facebook. its about tracking websites you visit which feature the like button. It doesnt matter if you click it or ignore it, the very fact you were on the page is logged. Personally I dont have a problem with this but I can see how some people would.
I’m analysing people’s browsing habits right now: 60% of people don’t read the article they’re commenting on.
The principle being addressed here is interesting, but I suspect the ‘Like’ button is a drop in the ocean. It’s an inevitable fact of the internet that your browsing history is being recorded somewhere and will be looked at by someone, either now or years down the line. Anonymity is a myth for 99% of users, only the very focussed cna keep their use history secret. Attacking Facebook on this issue is just going after the easy, visible and relatively accountable target – a better approach would be to teach people that they leave a permanent digital trail that can potentially be used commercially, legally or illegally by pretty much anyone.
Good point about Google+
The overall point is something people really don’t understand: You are being watched all the time online; every website you visit, how long you spend on a particular page and even where your mouse is moving on a page can be tracked. Combine that with all the personal information you provide voluntarily through profiles, tweets, opinions, comments etc and a pretty substantial profile can be constructed. The old chestnut of ‘if you have nothing to hide yadda yadda’ simply doesn’t stand when you consider that this information is being used all the time by regimes like Syria, Iran etc but is also being used by the FBI, CIA, DHS etc and they have ruined the lives of many innocent people whom they wrongfully accused and detained. Right now both Australia and Canada are putting together legislation to give their respective governments and law agencies almost unrestricted surveillance powers (see EFF website).
And if we know all that and don’t care?
It’s my data. If I’m happy to share it than it’s my business.
I agree with Michael. Who gives a fiddlers, it is not compulsory to use it. FFS have they nothing better to do than this.
Howard (and Michael): The whole point about this is that it doesn’t matter whether you’re a Facebook member or not. Irrespective of whether you’ve ever joined Facebook or typed ‘www.facebook.com’ into your browser, the way the Like button currently works means that Facebook can build a log of your internet browsing simply because you’ve gone to some pages that feature the ‘Like’ button.
Is there a dislike button for this article?
No, but there is one for your comment which is being used quite a lot.
Uptight Much?? Just a bit of fun… Or do you and tour friend Charlie Sheen not enjoy fun?? Lol rofl pmsl etc
bad grammar much?
Ironic that at the bottom of this story there is…….. a “Like” button
If you dont like facebook dont join it.Simple as that.
Gareth, did u bother reading the piece, it can track u even if u’r not joined up to facebook. But as the largest social networking site it goes beyond choice, It needs to be regulated. In some regimes even the word ‘choice’ would be flagged!
See Gavan’s comment above, its clear you don’t understand how the like button actually works
It’s not "simple as that" They are still recording your data even if you are NOT a member of Facebook!!!
It’s kinda like if you went shopping one Saturday and some company followed you all day and record what you did and where you went your home address… Then the company "sell" this info to another company in which they send junk mail to your house, flyers on your car… etc…
Now imagine if some con artiste acquired this info on you. They know where you live!!!!
If the main legal issue is that Facebook currently stores EU browsing data on US-based web servers, can they deal with this simply by storing EU browsing data on EU servers?
Ok – I get the bit about Facebook being able to collect browsing data without me being a Facebook user or having clicked the Like button. It is a bit ominous.
But this question about where the data is stored seems to me to be a very anachronistic law. This is the digital age. My payroll each month might be processed by my company in Singapore, I log in to approve a purchase order and the server is in Brazil. I go home and log on to YouTube and my browsing hops through servers in Kiev and Bangalore across the internet.
Having laws specifying the country into which I must keep data might allow for better data protection controls, but in business today, you host your business applications, your e-mails, your social networking sites wherever is most cost effective.
I started reading this and started to lose the will to live in this over regulated world….. (pity they didn’t take the banking system this seriously)
Facebook have an office here so I think we already know how this is going to end.
So google analytics is illegal too then right?
That depends on whether it’s the data scraping, or the fact that it’s done outside the EU, that’s illegal. The German DPC I mentioned reckons it’s the latter issue.
Ok.so big brother is watching us all the time from the use of cctv,internet,smart phones and iphones.Theres nothing we can do about it.Its a fact of life today.Thanks to everybody for explaining it to me.Im not on facebook and never will be.
It had nothing to do with people on Facebook!!!! If you never use facebook this still can affect you!!!!
GARETH YOUR TOOOOOO LATE – this page HAS a LIKE BUTTON therefore facebook is already tracking your every click on any and every page you visit from here on in REGARDLESS of the fact that you have never visited facebook or have a facebook profile or have never interacted with anyone who has a facebook account. If someone you know has a photo of you they can download it onto their facebook page and tag you – ie. when someone moves a curser over YOUR face in the photo, your name will pop up beside your face and the date the picture was downloaded will also be visible. That photo is out there with you tagged in it FOREVER for EVERYONE to see it!!!!!!!! And what if that photo showed you doing something naughty and your partner sees it. What if you’d split up with a psycho boyfriend/girlfriend and didnt want them knowing where you are socialising or what your doing?????
Store the data in Ireland.
Problem solved.
Now, where’s my consultancy moneies?
Check is in the post Terry
I want a dislike button. Man I hate so much. : )
There is no privacy on line never has been never will be.
Someone people have far too much time on their hands and for once it’s not the people who use Facebook.
Is that all these “Jinnets ” have to do with their time !!
RE: Privacy and the Like …. It seems the box containg the Like function is what tracks FB and non FB users by monitoring their IP movements before and aftersite so surely it up to the sites hosting this function to decide if it viewers are being tracked or not. By virtue of the fact that Jounal.ie used the Fb “like” module on it’s site it has been unwittingly sending data to american servers. Now that this new information is out , will EU websites, such as the lovely Journal.ie, trade huge amounts of traffic it recieves via FB for the data privacy of it’s readers or simply wait for the slow legal machine to outlaw this process? The slightly unnerving reality of data-srcaping is that your time-stamped IP address and hence terrestrial address and identity is sitting on servers in the US in duplicate. It would seem we’re on American turf here. (a country that has very different notions of freedom and/of information than we do.)
about a minute ago, Like
It’s great that you can ‘dislike’ something and have it tracked so much it becomes data and that Europe have it as data also. I have to pay a ‘universal social charge’ to a past government ‘cos they screwed me over and people don’t feel the need to get irate. Get a grip, Folks! Wish I could think of a scam involving my dead budgie’s cousin’s wife’s aunt’s nephew’s chipmunk’s nuts from Nigeria could gain me huge sponduliks.
Speaking of Privacy and the like:
Look what I just came across…..
its a big pile of crap really ! at least you have a choice to push the button or not , its data collection over a comment or YouTube video every site does it , mainly Google or the iPhone tracking your movements (not bowl movements) it doesn’t phase me in the least and either should you
Ignorance is bliss.
Bowl movements? I always put mine in the dishwasher when I’m finished
lol… some people haven’t a clue!!!
What’s your bank details because I need to lodge $53,9765,335 from my dead ant’s account in Nigeria before the government get their hands on it!!!
i dislike that
Same problem with browser cookies. Is there a decision on the legislation there yet?
Browser cookies aren’t the same. They’re stored on your own PC and you have control over whether or not to keep them or delete them.
God bless the Austrians looking out for our well being. Of course they have a history of producing concerned citizens including that lad with the funny wee tash.
Honestly the crap civil servants are coming up with to justify their irrelevant existence
this is just about keeping the wheels of beurocracy firmly clogged
The complaint was made by an Austrian based lobby group. Nothing to do with Civil Sevants. Read the article first!!!
Like.
Start Page. com, No IP tracking
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