Combining contemporary interviews with police interrogation tapes and local news converage, Netflix’s new documentary Making a Murderer paints a vivid and disturbing portrait of the Wisconsin State Justice system and the shocking story of Steven Avery. In a case which saw much local publicity at the time, Avery spent 18 years in prison for a sexual assault he never committed, before then being convicted for murdering a local photographer two years after his release.
Initially convicted of sexual assault in 1985, Avery was only released in 2003, following the emergence of new DNA evidence which proved his innocence. Once out of prison, he began a civil suit against those responsible for his wrongful conviction, and became the face of a movement to reform the Wisconsin Justice System. Yet with his civil suit ongoing he was arrested and later convicted for the murder of local photographer Teresa Halbach in 2005.
The narrative runs along two parallel tracks, on the one hand describing how the injustice and misfortune suffered by Avery at the hands of the legal system might have created a man capable of murder, whilst the more conspiratorial approach suggests another miscarriage of justice by a Sheriff’s Department threatened by the implications of Avery’s civil suit. The first episode focuses on the former, describing a man’s life hit by multiple tragic injustices. Though Avery claims he left the bitterness behind him upon his release from prison, the question of what impact the events had on him is left open.
The documentary, and Avery’s story, covers an enormous amount of ground and at times makes for uneasy viewing. It tells of the outsider status of Avery and his family, seen by much of the community as shady local hillbillies, and poses troubling questions about the small-town mentality of the area. It exposes corrupt practice on the part of the local police force, seemingly so keen to imprison one of the troublesome Avery clan that the real offender is allowed to walk free. The true focus is not so much on Avery himself; he appears at times a distant figure, as we hear from him primarily through crackling prison phone interviews. Rather the focus is on those around him, be it his parent’s unswerving belief in their son’s innocence, which remains concrete even as the evidence stacks up against him; the breakdown of his marriage during his first spell behind bars; or the judicial malaise his legal team had to work through to secure his initial release.
No stone was left unturned in the research for this project. Every police interview, deposition tape, local television report and newspaper story has been scoured and the result is a highly immersive look at this troubled world of tragedy and corruption. The long list of participants creates a drama more rich than any fictional show Netflix could have commissioned. Indeed, at times the ten-episode documentary has the pace and feel of a thriller. Occasionally the format can feel a little tired – the interviews and recordings are repeatedly interspersed with desolate-looking vistas of the Avery family scrap yard – yet the story is simply too gripping for this to detract. As the story progressed, the documentary increasingly became a courtroom drama, analysing the case against Avery and the strains on those involved. The series has already made a real impact in the US, massively increasing public interest in the case and prompting 120,000 people to sign a White House petition calling for a pardon for Avery. It comes to no clear conclusions on Avery’s guilt; rather, it paints an undeniably unsettling portrait of the justice system and a gripping account of the trial which followed. Few documentaries are as truly immersive and thought provoking as this.
Making a Murderer is now available on Netflix
