Netflix case to be re-examined
The convicted killer at the centre of the Netflix documentary series
has won the right to have his case reexamined because of new evidence.
Steven Avery was arrested in November 2005 and charged with the murder of Teresa Halbach, 25, a photographer whose charred remains were found at his family’s scrapyard.
At his trial in 2007 a jury disregarded the defence’s argument that police in Manitowoc County, Wisconsin, had planted evidence to frame Avery for the crime and he was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole. His nephew Brendan Dassey, now 29, was jailed for life as an accessory that year.
At the time of the murder Avery was pursuing a US$36 million legal claim against the county over his conviction for a violent sexual assault for which he served 18 years in prison before DNA evidence proved his innocence. He has always denied killing Halbach and the Netflix show, the makers of which spent a decade investigating the case, implied that he was the victim of a second miscarriage of justice. A first series was shown in 2015 and a second last year.
Avery, 56, has secured a motion to appeal based on police handling of possible human bones found in a gravel pit near the salvage yard in the investigation. His lawyer Kathleen Zellner said that the bones were not tested for DNA and were then secretly given to the Halbach family by investigators in violation of state law and of Avery’s rights. She has been trying to secure a test of the bones for two years.
In December Zellner tweeted that ‘‘one of the world’s leading DNA experts’’, Dr Richard Selden, was willing to examine the bones. ‘‘If this testing is allowed, we believe the bones will be Ms Halbach’s,’’ she added. ‘‘This will prove the murder and mutilation occurred in the Manitowoc County gravel pit and the bones were planted in Mr Avery’s burn pit to frame him.’’
The bones had been thought to be with the Wisconsin justice department. State law requires the authorities to preserve relevant ‘‘biological material’’ and ‘‘physical evidence’’ until a convicted person has left jail. When Zellner filed a motion to appeal she learnt that the bones had been given to the family, a move she said described as a ‘‘sneaky way to get evidence destroyed’’ without leaving a record that investigators had cremated the bones themselves. The condition of the bones now is unclear.
The Wisconsin court of appeals has ordered that the record of the case be supplemented ‘‘with the evidence the bones were destroyed’’, Zellner said. The circuit court will take that into account when deciding whether or not to grant a new trial.
She told ‘‘This evidence has the potential to undo the whole case, so it is a big win.’’