By Leah Graham
The Chariot
Troy HS
1st Place
Division 1, News Writing
Review
There is nothing chill about Netflix’s “Making A Murderer.” Halfway through one of the episodes, I hit pause so my sister and I could fully take in the suspicious glares of several particularly fed-up journalists frame by frame. They were as irritated in 2005 as we were in 2016, but, just like us, they couldn’t abandon the twisted story un-folding. It was almost comforting to see our own frustration mirrored on the screen.
The true crime documentary centers around Steven Avery, a man who spent 18 years in prison for a sexual assault he didn’t commit. The story begins with Avery’s wrongful conviction in 1985. After his exoneration by DNA evidence in 2003, Avery returns home to Manitowoc, WI, and files a lawsuit against the local police department for $36 million. Then 25-year-old Teresa Halbach disappears in 2005, and local police quickly arrest Avery when Halbach’s car and burned remains are found on his property.
But Avery’s implication in Halbach’s murder is not an open-and-shut case, at least not according to filmmakers Moira Demos and Laura Ricciardi. The two spent 10 years working on the series, investigating and documenting the Manitowoc County sheriff’s department’s conflict of interest in criminally prosecuting Avery for a second time.
The docuseries itself is masterfully craft-ed, although critics often cite various pieces of evidence left unmentioned (such as the fact that DNA from Avery’s sweat was found on the hood of Halbach’s car), but other viewers are more interested in the questionable conduct of law enforcement. Hundreds of thousands of people have signed petitions asking President Obama to pardon Avery and conspiracy theories are discussed extensively on sites like Reddit. Manitowoc officials have been harassed and even threatened.
The most prevalent response to the show, however, is frustration. I can’t watch more than one episode in a single sitting because I get too angry to keep going. I need a break to walk it off or take a nap, anything to cool down a little because it is just so infuriating. You feel helpless and enraged, desperately searching for a voice of reason that will give you all the answers- is Avery guilty or not? Did Manitowoc PD plant the evidence? What really happened to Teresa Halbach? Why is prosecutor Ken Kratz such a jerk?
Yet the barebones style of the documentary means there is no guidance or explicit direction to offer sanity. All the narration is told through real footage, so you are essentially subjected to the long and arduous legal process with Avery, and it’s absolutely exhausting. But you keep watching, waiting for that moment when clearheadedness will prevail and pull the truth out of an intensely muddled mystery.
And you’re supposed to feel this way. Yes, Demos and Ricciardi refrain from including several pieces of evidence from the prosecution’s case, but “Making A Murderer” is not a campaign; it’s a case study. They want you to feel frustrated with the American legal system, not just Avery’s situation. On “The Daily Show,” Demos and Ricciardi told Trevor Noah that they “did not intend to have an impact on that particular case.” Maybe Avery did kill Halbach, but that’s not what “Making A Murderer” is trying to prove. They used Avery as their subject be-cause “his story [is] this incredible window through which to look at our justice system.” In the words of Moira Demos, “We have a long way to go before we can have a reliable system.” People shouldn’t have to succumb to financial ruin in order to hire a capable attorney, live in fear of incompetent or malicious officials or worry that they will rot in jail for a crime they didn’t commit. Nobody should, regardless of who you are or where you’re from, and that is where the American justice system has failed.