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As our Making a Murderer obsession has grown to epic proportions, we’ve heard from a lot of people: Ken Kratz, the filmmakers, Moira Demos and Laura Ricciardi, Avery’s ex-fiancee, Ken Kratz, Avery’s on-camera defense, Dean Strang and Jerry Buting, Ken Kratz — the list goes on. However, there’s one person we haven’t yet heard from: Steven Avery himself. That changed Friday when Avery answered a letter from prison.
Steven Avery is the protagonist of Netflix’s docu-series, Making a Murderer. The 10-part series follows Avery’s release from prison after being exonerated by DNA evidence. After only a few short months of freedom, Avery becomes the lead suspect in the murder of Teresa Halbach, and crime for which he and his nephew, Brendan Dassey, were convicted for. Avery is currently serving life in prison without parole for the crime, and the documentary questions the fairness of Avery’s trial, whether or not evidence was planted on Avery by the Manitowoc police department, and the corrupt side of our criminal justice system. If you haven’t already taken the streaming plunge, you need to. It’ll make those water cooler debates much easier to follow.
Last Friday, a Milwaukee reporter from WISN 12 News sent Avery a letter, asking him to comment on the docu-series. The reporter received a three-page letter in return. In his correspondence, Avery maintains that he’s innocent, or in Avery’s own words:
Avery also asked the reporter, Colleen Henry, to investigate the sheriff of Manitowoc county and discredited his ex-fiancee’s recent interview on Nancy Grace. A couple of weeks ago, Jodi Stachowski, Avery’s ex who appears in the docu-series, refuted the happy, torn lovers way her relationship with Avery was presented. Stachowski claims that Avery was abusive, cruel, and that she ate rat poison twice just to get away from him. In reference to Stachowski, Avery suggested that she was paid off to talk negatively about Avery. According to Avery, “How much money Jodi get to talk bad!” Avery said that he was open to a face-to-face interview, but the Department of Corrections vetoed that decision. Avery also sent a similar letter to FOX6’s Ted Perry. It’s also important to note that Avery has yet to see the docu-series because his requests to see the series have been denied.
This isn’t the first time that Avery has written a letter from prison, but it is the first time that he’s communicated with the public. Recently, Avery filed an appeal to be released from prison, which was leaked to the public. Avery’s new attorney, Kathleen Zellner, was criticized for allowing her client to release his own appeal, and former district attorney Ken Kratz pointed to the appeal as proof that Avery continues to do whatever he wants. Meanwhile, Zellner is busy debunking the prosecution’s arguments on Twitter. The whole situation is a complicated web that seems to get more complicated each day. If the filmmakers released a follow-up interview saying that Making a Murderer was a meta-doc that explored how obsessive viewers can be, I wouldn’t be surprised.
IS THERE OTHER WRITTEN MAKING A MURDERER NEWS?
What a strangely specific question to ask, but yes. Currently, there are two Making a Murderer books that should be on your radar. Penguin Random House will be publishing a book about Avery’s involvement in the criminal justice system. Entitled Innocent Killer, the book will be written by Michael Griesbach, a Wisconsin lawyer who was part of the documentary and was part of the team who found the new DNA evidence that exonerated Avery from his first sentence in prison.
The second book you’re probably going to hate. Resident Making a Murderer hater, Ken Kratz, is writing a book to clear his name. According to Kratz, he’s been thinking about writing a book for 10 years now. For some weird reason, the words “cash grab” come to mind
