Re: Making a Murderer (spoilers expected) did Steven Avery do it?
It is also extremely unlikely that anyone that heard Ken Kratz's press conference describing brutal way that Teresa Halbach was killed according to the Brendan Dassey "confession" could easily separate that from what was actually presented at trial and that a group of people from Manitowoc County could be considered impartial. I am still shocked that Avery's attorneys didn't try and get the trial moved as far away from Manitowoc County as possible.
It is extremely easy to look at the facts presented in the documentary and the links assembled in the first post and come to the conclusion that Dassey (and to a lesser extent Avery) deserve new trials. I struggle to get over the hurdle of what Avery's motive is. The guy was so close to getting a giant payday and he would do this? There are just so many things that don't make sense for Avery to be the one that did it...unless you assume he did do and that everything strange is simply the MCSD making sure he is convicted of it.
Kratz' press conference was pretty shady, although not any more so than any other prosecutor who does the same thing. The series did a great job of showing how each party, daily, did their best to sell the case through the media. The defense probably should have asked for some sort of gag order right at the very beginning, in November, which would have headed off the March press conference. Maybe they did, and it was denied, but I haven't seen any evidence of it.
I suspect a request to change venue was made, but I don't know. Avery's attorneys seemed fairly on the ball. At one point they were reading from documents they received from prospective jurors/community members, I assume, regarding their pre-trial feelings on the case. If you recall, most of them said something like they thought Avery was guilty. My guess is that the lawyers had obtained that survey type of evidence to try to support a change of venue. But I don't think venue changes occur all that often.
My personal feeling is that it's more likely than not Avery did this, although because my knowledge is based almost exclusively on a slanted Netflix series and what various bloggers have written, it's hard to claim I have a clear picture of all the evidence.
Here's the thing about the motive of the county to frame Avery. As I understand it, there were three defendants -- the County, the former sheriff, and the former prosecutor. The two individuals who faced civil liability were both long out of office and played zero role in the investigation or trial. None of the cops were going to have to foot the bill for the County. No question that the sheriffs deputies didn't like Avery, and I don't doubt that they could have "enhanced" the evidence to try to ensure a conviction, but there is no way I believe the cops killed this girl.
That means someone else did. While there are a lot of questions about the discovery of some of the evidence, and certainly the Dassey confessions, we do still know that Halbach went to Avery's house, that was basically the last place anyone saw her alive, all cellphone or other activity stopped after that, the vehicle was found in the Avery auto yard, and her bones were discovered in the burn pit and barrel. If Avery didn't do it, what happened? Is there any reasonable belief the cops found Halbach's bones somewhere else, then slipped them into Avery's burn pile? If it was the cops, where did they find the bones, and when?
If the "evidence" thrown around about Avery is even half true in terms of his repeated calls asking for Halbach to come out, his greeting her once in only a towel, his abuse of relatives, I'd have a pretty queasy feeling about the guy.
The problem is now, I'm not sure the state could get a "fair" trial, if Avery were re-tried, as strange as that sounds. We ought to err on the side of the defendant. But I think we, who did not sit through the actual trial, should be careful in judging the jury in this case.
