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Making a Murderer: Who’s Watched It?
Gripping, disturbing, unbelievable. This Netflix show is one of the best true crime documentaries I’ve seen. It is in the vein of the Paradise Lost documentary and the podcast Serial. I think it’s better than both. The storyline is so bizarre and amazing you’d roll your eyes if Hollywood made it up.
The internet has exploded over this documentary series. It chronicles the story of Steven Avery, a Wisconsin man who was wrongfully convicted of rape in 1985 after a corrupt investigation and who was held in prison for 18 years despite the authorities receiving multiple bits of evidence that he was in fact innocent. Avery was finally released when some new DNA evidence made it obvious that someone else had committed the crime, someone the prosecutors almost certainly knew had done it. However the show isn’t about this part of Avery’s story. The series covers a murder investigation that centered around Avery two years after he was released.
I encourage Netflix users to watch. It raises disturbing questions about how prosecutions are carried out in our system and whether it really protects the innocent. I’d love to hear the thoughts of others who’ve seen the series and followed the subsequent coverage and criticisms of the series.
A few questions for those who are interested:
- Is Steven Avery guilty?
- Is Brendan Dassey guilty?
- Did the police plant evidence?
- Was prosecutorial conduct and the conduct of the judges egregious enough that Avery and Dassey should have avoided conviction, regardless of their actual guilt?
- Will Avery and Dassey get set free due to all the publicity now surrounding their stories?
I’m about halfway through it. I’m not at all convinced of Avery’s innocence nor guilt, but I’m pretty convinced that some of the evidence was planted, that Dassey’s interrogation was a travesty and the resulting confession was worthless. Dassey appears more innocent than Avery, but once the evidence is tainted, how can you be sure of anything?
Over and over it appears that the authorities were far more interested in getting Avery than they were about finding the murderer. That it would come so closely on the case against them for his previous false conviction is just too much to ignore.
Guilty or not, a fair trial is due, and they did not get that.
After you finish, read about some of the evidence that was left out of the series. Also, read the transcripts of all the Dassey interviews.
I agree that the treatment Dassey got from the investigators was criminal. When you read all of the transcripts, though, you get a slightly different impression about what Dassey knew and what might have happened that day.
I believe that Avery probably did it, and that Dassey was possibly involved in it somehow, probably only burning the body. But I think that the investigators and prosecutors got greedy and tried to get more out of Dassey than he really knew by continuing to go back and try and coerce him over and over and over.
I also think the police and prosecution did plant evidence and manipulate the investigation in illegal ways to ensure the conviction.
All of which poses a conundrum for me. Is it just to let a convicted murderer go due to the misconduct of the prosecutors? I’m inclined to say yes for the ironic reason that holding prosecutors accountable is necessary in order to avoid what happened to Avery in 1985.
As stated above, the documentary is heavily biased and omits some pretty damning evidence. Seems to me Avery killed that woman, but in order to be sure they could send him away, the police planted additional evidence and railroaded that kid into giving false statements under duress. He did not get a fair trial, from what I can see, but I do think he is guilty at the end of the day.
Taras, should Avery go free if it can be proven some of the evidence was planted or manipulated?
I have seen some news stories today about the evidence left out of the documentary. That is part of why I say I am unconvinced of Avery’s innocence. But I did not find it particularly damning neither, there are too many inconsistencies in the case. All the evidence is suspect if there truly was planted evidence, and to me the keys were convincingly a plant.
The bullet seems like an obvious plant as well. I also believe that the police were skulking around the junkyard without a warrant and found the car. They then told the woman who found the car exactly where to go to find it. The blood evidence is quite suspect as well. We are to believe that Avery was meticulous about cleaning up the blood everywhere else that it should be but that he didn’t wipe the car down?
I’m not a lawyer and I don’t know how these things work, but given everything pointed out in the documentary, I think the jury got it wrong. Much like the Adnan Said case, although I personally believe there is enough evidence to convince me that the man is guilty, there are too many issues with the process which led to his conviction. There are enough questions that warrant a not-guilty verdict, as there is sufficient reasonable doubt. I also don’t like the precedent that we should excuse egregious procedural errors (or outright frame-ups) by law enforcement.
The car is another inconsistency. As they pointed out in the documentary, it is hard to believe they cleaned the murder scene, supposedly of a rape, throat slashing, and multiple head shots, so well that no DNA could be found but then left the car, barely concealed by some branches and wood scraps, and with bloodstains, on their own property- when they crush cars for a living around there!
Didn’t they allude to some police record of calls reporting the missing RAV4 somewhere else a day or so before it showed up at the yard? I got the impression that police moved the car. ( that would explain why they had the key if they did in fact plant it. )
The officer called in the plate to the car a day or two before it was found. He never said that he had found the car or seen it. He simply called to confirm the license plate and make of the missing car. It sounded very much like he was looking at the plate or had just seen the plate on the call.
I don’t believe the police moved the car there. I believe they were sneaking around the Avery yard without a warrant because they were worried that Avery would have the means to dispose of the car so they didn’t want to wait for a warrant. After finding the car they set up a search for Teresa Halbach that included the Avery yard, and gave one of the women involved in the search directions on how to find the car. That way, the car could be discovered by someone other than the police without a search warrant.
If you read the interviews with Dassey from late February, before he was coerced into the crazy rape story, it sounds like Avery actually stabbed Haibach in her car and then moved the car to the spot it was found. Then Avery manually dragged the body from the car using a snowmobile sled. Avery had planned to dispose of the car, but didn’t have an opportunity to do so without being seen before the investigation began to focus on him. He was stuck and had to hope no one would find the car before he had a chance to crush and dispose of it.
Then you would expect a large amount of her blood in the car, but didn’t they only find a small amount in the back?
Yeah, you’re right, but her body was obviously in the car after being stabbed/shot at some point. The blood stain from her was consistent with bloody hair rubbing the inside of the car. She may have been stabbed/shot somewhere in the yard, put in a garbage bag or wrapped in plastic of some sort, then put in the car for transport to another spot. Then the car was hidden while Avery waited for a good opportunity to dispose of it.
I agree with the above poster who said Avery is likely guilty, but that the police colluded in major misconduct, unnecessarily, in order to make sure he was convicted.
It boggles the mind how Dassey could have done the things he confessed to doing. The kid is obviously of a diminished mental capacity and likely would have confessed to kidnapping the Lindbergh baby if pressed on it.
It seems obvious that law enforcement thought Avery committed the murder and produced / made up a case to be sure they got him for it. They found a not bright witness and bullied him testifying to seal the deal. Placed, made up and lost evidence as needed. Seems like normal law enforcement activity to me.
I do not know if Avery or Dassey killed Haibach. I hope they did because it would be sad to think of them being treated like they are if not guilty. But the world is not a nice place.
https://twitter.com/jason_howerton/status/684491508708278272
I didn’t see the Netflix film, but for somebody who has seen the film I have a question. Did the makers of the Netflix film include this information published in the New York Times in November 2005.
I’ve only watched the first two episodes. I hadn’t heard about it until someone, I think here on Ricochet, mentioned it in a post about Serial. It’s pulling me in much more than the Bergdahl stuff on Serial – so far, anyway.
I am more in favor of indicting those suspected of misconduct with the outcome that everyone guilty of something does time. So no.
Doug, yes they cover all of that. I cannot go into all of it, you’ll have to watch to see why much of that evidence has come into doubt. But a couple of quick things, the Manitowac police department was in the process of being sued by Avery for his wrongful conviction. Many of the people involved in the subsequent murder investigation had been part of the earlier rape investigation. These people had all been deposed just prior to the date of the murder and their conduct was being scrutinized as to liabibility for wrongfully imprisoning Avery. As with the murder case there was considerable evidence for misconduct and corrupt behavior which the viewers learn by watching the deposed testimony of the law enforcement individuals involved.
For this reason Manitowac county recused itself from conducting the murder investigation and handed it off to Calumet county investigators. Manitowac county investigators and law enforcement were not supposed to be part of the investigation except where absolutely necessary, and they were to be supervised by Calumet county officials when there assistance was needed.
Despite those facts, the very people named in the civil law suit were the first to volunteer and be appointed to help with the investigation. What’s more, virtually all of the damning evidence you cite above was found by the Manitowac police who were not supposed to really be part of the investigation in the first place. This cast suspicion on all the evidence they found.
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For example, the car key that was found in Averys house was found after the same room had been searched on 8 different occasions and the person who discovered it was one of the officers whose conduct was part of the civil law suit. What’s more, this key when tested only had traces of Averys DNA. It had no DNA from the actual owner of the car on it.
Much of the other evidence had similar problems. A blood vial of Avery’s blood which the Manitowac county had from the previous case against Avery was found to have been tampered with and blood taken from it. This cast serious doubt on the blood found in the car.
There is much more that made the case smell rotten if you watch the show.
So my next question would be was Ms. Halbechs vehicle moved from another location and planted in the wrecking yard, to include her body and her bones and teeth by the police?
Actually I believed her body was burned so that makes for a busy day for investigators, they had to burn her body make sure her vehicle was in the wrecking yard, scatter some bones and teeth and then hide her car key in their suspect’s bedroom. I guess my next question would be where was Mr. Avery when all this was going on in his wrecking yard.
Doug you have to watch the show. The Averys were ordered off their property and investigators were there searching for over a week without anyone from the outside looking in. The way the bones were collected made it impossible to rule out that they had been burned elsewhere and moved. There were in fact bones found at multiple sites around the property which didn’t fit with the prosecutions theory for how the murder and disposal happened.
As for the car, there was a call made by a Manitowac officer to check on a plate and car model which matched Halbachs. However the officer never reported seeing the vehicle he had called in about and this was before the police had a warrant to search Averys property. The car wasn’t subsequently found for another day or two, and the woman who found the car was able to come upon the car very quickly considering this was a massive junkyard with several thousand cars on it. In the show it seems likely the police treated the search team that found the car differently from other teams when they were positioned. When the woman who found the car was asked how she happened to know where to look for the car, the woman claimed the Holy Spirit guided her there.
Assuming the police did plant the evidence, it didn’t happen at the same time. They had several days to figure out how to frame Avery. The body was burned at some other place (or at least some cremains were found elsewhere). The key and bullet were found long after the killing. The vehicle was found almost immediately by the first couple of searchers, even though there were thousand of cars over (if memory serves) 20 acres.
It is inexplicable why he would not have crushed the car with her in it; why he would have transported her in the car a few feet to the burn pit; why the evidence file with his blood from the previous case had a broken seal and a hypodermic needle hole in the tube; why the school bus driver’s testimony which contradicts the prosecution timeline is never explained; how the bedroom, the supposed rape and throat-cutting scene could have been sanitized so completely without actually being cleaned up; how the key and fob, which were not small, could have been missed in the first 8 searches; why Sgt. Colburn called in a plate number and make of car; why the Manitowoc police kept on searching when they were not needed, but were the only ones to find anything. And if the rape and kidnapping didn’t happen, what was the motive for the killing?
The police had a motive for the frame: $36 million.
When Netflix offers proof of a conspiracy not just allegations give me a call.
I think it’s time for Bob Dylan to write a song about this case.
Netflix offers all sorts of evidence that indicate what might be a conspiracy, Doug, if you actually watch the show. I don’t think it’s fair of you to expect people who’ve watched the show to do justice to the ten hours of facts presented 250 words at a time.
Of course you don’t have to watch anything you don’t want, but to dismiss the suspiscion of the officers as sensational or unfounded without watching the show seems a bit too willing to ignore potential misconduct of law enforcement.
I haven’t started watching it yet. I loved the Serial adnan season. I have no desire to get into the Serial Bergdahl case.
Question… Did Avery get a cash settlement for the first false conviction…. is that how he ended up with the scrap metal yard?
The scrap metal yard was the family business and had been so for generations, I believe. Avery did end up settling the law suit for the false conviction after the murder investigation crippled his ability to pursue it. The deal was for about $400,000, of which Avery saw about $240,000. The money he received is how he paid for his defense.
I’m in the middle of watching the series now and am enjoying it. These are skilled film makers with a compelling story. But the editing and selective use of plot points in dedicated service of their point-of-view is obvious. You get the sense they were going to serve up their conclusion, and most dramatic story possible, no matter what the full facts of the case were.
This is basically defense lawyer porn, create reasonable doubt on the state’s evidence, even if its at the margins. Don’t worry about presenting a full case of the truth, its sufficient just to expose the other side’s weaknesses and incompetence.
Many twists and turns in the story, but it doesn’t merit a 10 hour miniseries. There is lots of padding, and it’s paced and structured like a reality series, looking for drama even in the mundane.
Errol Morris covered this same dramatic territory nearly 30 years ago in “The Thin Blue Line”. He did it in less than 2 hours, and it feels far more complete and satisfying (despite even more dramatic license, with reenactments and a Phillp Glass soundtrack).
30 years between these cases also shows that police/prosecutorial misconduct probably isn’t very rare in this country of 300 million people and thousands of jurisdictions.