POIGNANT RETURN
THIS time, the twists and turns follow the postconviction process of Avery and Dassey. “We’re documenting and showing the experience of someone who’s convicted, serving life, and challenging their sentence,” as Moira puts it.
WE MEET KATHLEEN ZELLNER
THERE are major new characters – including Chicago-based lawyer Kathleen Zellner, who specialises in wrongful convictions, and took on Avery’s case shortly after Part One aired, vowing to prove his innocence.
“We’ve never witnessed anybody working in the way that she does: her strategy, her methodology, her confidence, her vision,” notes Laura passionately.
“It’s ultimately Steven’s decision whether or not his attorney can let people like us in, so we’re really grateful that they chose to let us in.
“What’s paramount to Kathleen is that she’s representing someone she believes to be innocent.”
THERE ARE STILL UNANSWERED QUESTIONS
WE see Zellner assemble a host of world-class experts who employ the latest scientific methods to raise Netflix hit creators Moira Demos and Laura Ricciardi
questions about the forensic evidence used to convict Avery in 2007 – including the discovery of his sweat DNA on the hood latch of Halbach’s car.
“What I understood Kathleen’s DNA consultant to be saying is that Steven would’ve had to have touched the hood (car bonnet) latch 90 times in order to yield the amount of DNA that the state’s expert claimed to have retrieved.”
WE SEE NEW PERSPECTIVES
A HUGE number of people have been involved in Making A Murderer, as Laura and Moira wanted to include a variety of those connected to and affected by the story.
But it was notable the family of the victim were absent from the first series.
“We asked the Halbachs if they wanted to participate and they declined both for Part One and Part Two,” says Laura.
She reasons we still heard their point of view though through Mike Halbach, Halbach’s brother who was a self-appointed spokesman for the family and gave a number of press conferences.
THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM IS EXPLORED FURTHER
DASSEY’S post-conviction lawyers, Laura Nirider and Steve Drizin, are seeking to overturn their client’s conviction in the federal courts by arguing that