Making A Murder filmmakers: ‘the [national] media are demonizing this man’
Embed from Getty Images Netflix’s controversial documentary series Making A Murderer continues to generate headlines and think pieces, most notably this excellent one from New Yorker magazine. At a panel discussing the series at the Television Critics Association’s winter press tour on Sunday, film creators Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos addressed criticism that they painted a picture of Steven Avery that avoided mention of his violent past, including recently reported incidents of abuse against his ex-wife and ex-fiancee Jodi Stachowski, who told producers of Nancy Grace’s HLN show that he was a “monster”. Ricciardi responded to the critics by saying, “I think what we’re seeing now is actually history repeating itself. It’s now on a national scale that the media are demonizing this man in order to prove his guilt. What we did was we documented the Halbach case as it was unfolding. Whatever [allegations against Avery] you’re referencing now never came into that process at all. So it wasn’t relevant to our process. We looked at the history here.” At the panel discussion, Ricciardi also revealed that Steven Avery has not yet seen the documentary, saying, “He asked the warden and his social worker whether he would be able to see it and his request was denied. When we spoke to him recently, his focus was mainly on his case.” When asked if a sequel was on the horizon, Demos said, “This story is ongoing. These cases are open. But it’s real life. You don’t know what’s going to happen. So we are ready to follow these if there are significant developments. We will be there.” In other Making A Murderer news, Dean Strang, one of Avery’s defense lawyers, admitted during an appearance on CBS This Morning this past Friday that he has some doubts about the convict’s innocence. When asked if he felt his client could possibly be guilty he responded, “Sure, absolutely.” He then added, “And if it was OK to convict people on maybes, I wouldn’t be worried about this, but it’s not.” On the flip side, Strang said he was still not convinced of Avery’s guilt, stating, “I’m not at all convinced of his guilt, never have been.” It would be interesting to see how a sequel would handle all of the recent evidence, especially the details coming in about the vial of Avery’s blood that seemed to be the defense’s “smoking gun.” Photo credit: Getty Images, Netflix
