If you’re like me, you’ve undoubtedly watched Netflix’s documentary series Making a Murderer, and have subsequently become a murder investigator, judge, and lawyer in the process. I engulfed the series in a mere two nights. I’m still awaiting my law degree and PI license to arrive in the mail.
Nonetheless, we’re talking about a pretty intriguing series regardless of whether you think Steven Avery is guilty or innocent. I’ll start by saying that I have processed the show, read the Reddit theories, searched through the evidence that the documentary left out, and I still haven’t reached a conclusion as to whether or not I think Avery’s innocent.
So far, I haven’t found as comprehensive, yet compact, of a review of the major prevailing theories as Liz Raftery’s summation for TV Guide.
It’s such a complex and convoluted case with so much conflicting evidence that you can tie a number of people to the crime. I’d say, realistically, 5-8 people are involved in the case who could conceivably have been responsible for the death of Teresa Halbach. The problem? That whole ‘reasonable doubt’ thing.
I’ll acknowledge that in cases such as this, the simplest potential explanation is usually the closest to the truth. Despite the compelling case presented by attorneys Jerry Buting and Dean Strang, that simple explanation places Avery as the culprit. Not to mention, the filmmakers left out some pretty damning evidence – that Avery was repeatedly calling Halbach, that she felt so uncomfortable around Avery she asked her boss not to go out to the salvage yard, and that he used to beat his girlfriend (Jodie) via chokehold. Ken Kratz has come out and said that they found DNA from Avery’s sweat under the hood of Halbach’s Rav4 (whether the proof of this comes out remains to be seen). Don’t forget about that montage at the beginning of the series either – the one where Avery was threatening to kill his baby mama and that time he lit a cat on fire because he was ‘young and stupid.’ He’s not dealing with a finely tuned moral compass.
There’s a stronger case against Avery than this docuseries showed. The notion that he is guilty holds a lot of water, and one should not accept this series as proof of Avery’s innocence.
However, in Moira Demos and Laura Ricciardi’s defense, they did reach out to everyone involved from judges to law enforcement to the Halbachs themselves. The two filmmakers even reached out to Kratz, who refutes this claim despite the letter requesting his participation in the docuseries being on file as a part of the trial’s permanent record. So, if the series seems a little biased, as if you’re only watching one side of the story, well yeah – you are. But, no one took the chance to provide the other side of this story, so we have what we have – accounts from the Averys, Buting and Strang, and good ol’ Len Kachinsky (who was a tremendous help in supporting the notion that Avery and Dassey are guilty…).
There’s just so much that doesn’t line up. Was Avery stupid enough to leave Halbach’s Rav4 on the property with access to a car crusher on his lot? Was he stupid enough to burn the remains in a barrel behind his garage with access to a smelter? Yeah, I’d say that’s a fair argument.
But, then, would he be sophisticated enough to rid his garage of all blood and any chemical residue that would indicate he cleaned the scene up? Hell no!
A lot of things did indeed work in Avery’s favor – Manitowoc County had a clear motive to send him to prison (if they had killed him, the Avery Bill likely would’ve passed and that crisp $36 million likely would have gone to Avery’s family anyway so no, I don’t buy the “why wouldn’t we just kill him?” argument). Kratz was completely unprofessional in painting a terrible picture of Halbach’s death that ended up being completely dishonest and put Avery in a corner before his trial even began. The prosecution also used a lot of psychological deflection tactics in front of the media. How do you explain Andy Colburn? How do you explain Manitowoc County’s involvement in the ongoing investigation?
At the same time, how lucky and skillful would the Manitowoc County Sheriff’s Department have to be to stumble upon Halbach’s body and frame Avery in such quick fashion? So, they saw the body, realized it’s on the Avery property, remembered how much they hated Steven Avery and wanted to get rid of him, thought back to the vial of his blood back at the station, hopped back in the car to go get it, came back, planted it, and set up their own rendition of the crime scene in a perfect way to set up Avery? I’m still not convinced that the law enforcement agents in question were that intelligent either!
The bottom line is that nothing about this makes any sort of sense on either side of the argument.
It’s a murky, clouded collection of information exacerbated by an outright sham of a trial, and now, I’m more or less writing this piece to, hopefully, get it out of my head so that I can enjoy simple programs like Ridiculousness and WWE again. It’s not so much ‘truth & lies’ as it is ‘plausible & implausible,’ and that’s tricky territory to navigate when peoples’ lives are on the line and a family is searching for justice.
So, despite whether you think Avery is guilty or innocent, a few undeniable, universal truths came out as a result of this series:
1. Teresa Halbach’s death is still a mystery – The biggest fact to come out of this that I think we can all agree on is that we’ll probably never know what actually happened to Teresa Halbach. The show has spun its’ focus away from the actual murder to become an indictment on the failings of the court system in place. Sure, that’s a pretty heinous occurrence in and of itself, but don’t lose sight of what this family went through.
2. Coerced confessions are very real – Brendan Dassey’s “confession” was utterly hard to watch. There’s a lot of psychology at play here, and in this situation specifically, it’s obvious the men questioning him were seeking a confession, and not the truth.
3. Len Kachinsky is a real douche – Not only was he not loyal to his client, he outright suggested his guilt, and urged him to plea accordingly. I could go into all the reasons Kachinsky is a grade A bucket of shit, but if you watched the series, you already know. I sincerely hope on a daily basis that someone breaks his glasses and punches him square in the dick. Repeatedly.
4. People can be pretty damn impressionable – Seven jurors initially thought Avery to be innocent. Those seven were eventually swayed by the three who thought him to be guilty, despite refusing to elaborate as to why they thought he was guilty. That’s pretty messed up. If they were swayed that way from evidence and fact, that’s one thing. But eventually, this came down to people wanting to go home and not about seeking out the truth.
5. Brendan Dassey had to miss Wrestlemania – You’re facing trial and life imprisonment for allegedly raping, murdering, and mutilating a woman, but all that pales in comparison to being in prison when the bell rings at Wrestlemania. It just goes to show you how dedicated wrestling fans are. The gravity of his situation had no bearing on his soul until he realized he wouldn’t get to watch the WWE’s Super Bowl. I definitely share that sentiment, and my heart broke upon hearing this revelation. Thankfully, there are good men like X-Pac to do good things in this world.
6. Families like the Averys do indeed exist outside of the South – whew – as a Southern man, I was incredibly relieved to see the Averys were from Wisconsin. Incest, assault, and petty crimes are a staple of such families in the South and give us, as a people, a real black eye. It’s good to see that some Northerners are carrying that weight, too. I’ll remember this the next time I’m called white trash just because I’m from the South (because that happens pretty regularly). “HEY PAL – THAT’S EVERYWHERE ‘ROUND THESE PARTS!”*
*These parts being the U. S. of A.
Solid work from Jarett Wieselman here, too.
It’s not that justice wasn’t served – but that we don’t know whether justice was served or not.
Stoney Keeley is the editor of the SoBros Network, Tennessee Titans Featured Analyst for Pro Football Spot, and covers the WWE for WrestlingNews.co. Follow on Twitter @StoneyKeeley, @PFSpot, @WrestlingNewsCo
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