Heads up: this article discusses real-life claims of sexual abuse.
One of the tenets of Netflix’s incredibly crafted and equally addictive Making A Murderer is that media manipulation of a case can make or break a defendant’s chance at real justice.
Ironically, it seems that in the process of following the homicide case against Steven Avery (and his nephew, Brendan Dassey), filmmakers Moira Demos and Laura Ricciardi may have left out a very important piece of evidence against Avery himself.
(We’re going to come out and say it: here be spoilers, and if you are yet to encounter real-life heroes Dean Strang and Jerry Buting and their battle against… well, almost everyone in the state of Wisconsin, turn back now. Actually, watch the trailer below, then the entire series, and meet us back here in, like, 12 hours.)
via TheWrap.
More worrying for Avery’s public perception is an excerpt of a phone call between Dassey and his mother Bard Janda, in which he claims – seemingly of his own accord – that Avery would inappropriately grope Brendan and his siblings.
via TheWrap.
No charges were ever filed against Avery based on those claims.
Their exclusion from the series as it stands could feasibly be seen as concise filmmaking; on the other hand, if true (and admissible in court), the entire story presented through the series would be effectively torn apart; journo and podcaster Dan O’Donnell went as far to say “it’s really sad, it becomes almost like a master/servant relationship in which the molester has this almost God-like power over some victims.”
That’s without even broaching the topic of the effect such abuse may have had on Dassey. Demos and Ricciardi have declined to comment.
Third visit WCC: SA thrilled about chance of new forensic testing–like innocent men always are.#MakingAMurderer pic.twitter.com/7p2JwaJoYt
— Kathleen Zellner (@ZellnerLaw) January 29, 2016
