President Obama Will Not Pardon ‘Making A Murderer’ Scapegoat Steven Avery

For anyone hoping that President Obama would be able to pardon Making a Murderer’s Steven Avery and his nephew, Brendan Dassey, prepare to be disappointed. As reported by Deadline yesterday evening, the White House responded about the possibility of pardoning the protagonist of Netflix’s new doc-series in the negative.

If you haven’t been watching, it’s time to catch up. The series follows a DNA exoneree, Steven Avery, after he was released from prison after serving 18 years. However, it’s not long after he’s released that Avery finds himself the prime suspect in the murder of Teresa Halbach. The series questions whether or not the Manitowoc County police department framed Avery for his crimes, and if the documentary’s passionate fan base in any indication, the series makes a good argument. Earlier this week we reported that two petitions for Avery’s release were gaining traction on the Web — one on Change.org and one on the White House’s site. Under a self-created system, a petition that is launched on the White House’s site must receive an official response from the White House after said petition reaches 100,000 signatures. This morning, the site is at nearly 130,000 signatures, which means we got to hear from the Obama administration last night.

Unfortunately for Avery supporters, the Obama Administration will be unable to pardon Avery and Dassey because both are state prisoners, not federal. However, the White House’s response to this petition wasn’t without hope. The White House stated that a pardon would be possible if it was “issued at the state level by the appropriate authorities.” The Administration used the national attention to highlight the amount of commutations and pardons that have occurred under President Obama.

That’s one petition, you may be saying to yourself. What’s going on with the Change.org one? Good question! Currently at more than 350,000 signatures, this one also received a response from the We the People team at the White House. This response says much of the same, outlining that while the President is unable to pardon Avery and Dassey, there is a way for the pair to be pardoned. However, if you’re interested, the creator of the petition, Mike Seyedian, spoke to Huffington Post about what led him to create the Change.org petition in the first place.

Whether you believe in Avery and Dassey’s guilt or innocence, these two petitions and their accompanying responses mark a major moment in true crime series, citizen empowerment, and their relationship with the government. Just the fact that a 10-part Netflix series that was released less than a month ago has received a response from the White House is more than remarkable. It’s empowering. Documentaries and true crime series are supposed to expose “the truth” to the the general public, and between the movements that are happening in Avery and Dassey’s cases as well as the developments in Serial Season One’s Adnan Syed’s case, it’s becoming more apparent that the same series we love to binge have the potential to enact real-world change.