It's been almost three years since Making a Murderer became a national obsession, and more than two years since Netflix promised us there would be a season 2. Now, at last, the streaming service announced that we'll all be dissecting the ins and outs of the criminal justice system when the season premieres on October 19.
Maybe, as a TV viewer, you're wondering what took them so long, especially since season 2 was once promised for the end of 2017. The sophomore season will pick up with Steven Avery and Brendan Massey's story as they remain in prison, still convicted of the 2005 murder of Teresa Halbach.
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"Building on Part 1, which documented the experience of the accused, in Part 2, we have chronicled the experience of the convicted and imprisoned, two men each serving life sentences for crimes they maintain they did not commit," Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos, MaM's producers and directors said in a statement. "We are thrilled to be able to share this new phase of the journey with viewers.”
When the show first premiered and made Avery and Dassey household names, it looked like national attention was going to crack their case back open. Things are obviously not that straightforward. The show did gain both men some fancy new lawyers, however: Kathleen Zellner, who the Netflix press release said "has righted more wrongful convictions than any private attorney in America" is representing Avery. Laura Nirider and Steven Drizin with Northwestern University’s Center on Wrongful Convictions of Youth are representing Avery's nephew Dassey, who was 16 at the time of the murder.
In the past two years, Nirider and Drizen have had some victories in overturning Dassey's conviction, arguing in appeals that he had intellectual disabilities and was wrongfully coerced into confessing. A panel for the US Court of Appeals initially overturned his conviction in 2017, but then the full court overruled that panel decision. In June, the US Supreme Court declined to intervene in the case, the Washington Post reported.
In September, a judge denied Avery's lawyer's motion to get a new trial based on the fact that his defence team discovered a CD that might contain evidence to clear him. The prosecution says that the CD contains the same information as seven other CDs already entered into evidence.
We're pretty sure MaM will make all of this seem a lot more exciting, especially as Zellner seems to be a force to reckon with. Get ready to start falling down the rabbit hole of Reddit conspiracy sites, everyone!