If you haven't heard about "Making a Murderer" you're not adulting right. It's all that anyone is talking about on social media and most news outlets. But, it's okay I've got the lowdown all ready for you."Making a Murderer" is a Netflix documentary series that premiered earlier last month about convicted rapist and murderer Steven Avery. One problem though: HE DIDN'T DO IT.
I want to preface this by saying that I hate Sarah Koenig, I hate her with a passion. No, she has nothing to do with "Making a Murderer" but if it wasn't for her smash hit podcast Serial, I would have never known how passionate I am about 'whodunnits'. If it wasn't for her and her ridiculously addictive show I wouldn't check my google alerts every morning before I get out of bed and hold my breath just hoping something is there telling me that Adnan Syed has been released from prison. If it wasn't for her I wouldn't know just how mucked up our penal system truly is and that it doesn't really matter if you did it (whatever that it may be) or not. All that matters is who thinks you did it. If They (They being the ambiguous Man in the given situation- be it the police, the judge, the district attorney, the defending attorney, or society as a whole) think you did it and they have no immediate evidence to prove otherwise- I hope you have a paddle because you have found yourself up $hit creek, my friend.
And $hit creek is exactly where Steven Avery and pretty much the entire Avery family has found themselves. In 1985, Avery was convicted of the brutal rape of a local woman despite his alibi. 18 years later thanks to The Innocence Project and DNA evidence it was discovered that another man had committed the rape. It was also discovered that the Manitowoc County sort of knew that it was another guy and that the initial line-up identification done by the victim was tampered with by the police.
Avery was released from prison and he started a project to reform criminal justice to stop innocent people from ever being convicted for crimes as he did. He also sued the state for his wrongful conviction. Just as the civil suit and state investigations against Manitowoc County were starting to uncover some startling facts and more and more important people were being incriminated in the cover-up of Avery's arrest Teresa Halbach was reported as missing.
"Making a Murderer" goes in very deep to show that the newest conviction of Steven Avery and his young nephew Brendan Dassey for the murder of Halbach is a massive frame job. The show shows just how badly pissing the wrong people off can go. I don't know what Steven Avery did to make the whole town of Manitowoc, Wisconsin hate him to this extent but those people are going through some massive efforts to get rid of him for good. Watch the show to get the rest of the details I don't want to ruin any more of it for you. Trust me we're just skimming the edge of this insane rabbit hole.
*Warning- Be prepared to dedicate the next 10 hours of your life to this show. Once you watch one episode you won't be able to stop.
