In less than a month, the 10-part Netflix documentary crime series “Making a Murderer” has swept the nation.
The documentary has outraged many people in the way it has revealed cracks in the our criminal justice system.
It has even gone so far as to have prompted a petition with over 436,000 signatures for President Obama to pardon Steven Avery and his nephew Brendan Dassey of their murder convictions illustrated in the documentary.
The Obama administration has made it clear that the president does not have the power to pardon convictions at the state level.
Despite this, support for Avery and Dassey has only grown more.
The documentary follows the wrongful rape conviction for which Avery served 18 years, along with Avery and Dassey’s trials for the murder of Teresa Halbach in 2005.
Spoiler alert for those of you who haven’t seen the series.
“Making a Murderer” presented compelling evidence that Avery and Dassey were actually framed for the murder of Halbach.
The documentary shows evidence of the murder and blames none other than the Manitowoc County Police and the officers who were negligent in the controversial case.
As a result of this negligency, Avery served 18 years for a rape he didn’t commit before being exonerated by DNA evidence.
There is much the public can do to help get Avery and his nephew released.
Still, it is encouraging to see people come together to voice their opinions on something they are so passionate about.
Expressing these opinions is the first stage in making a difference.
Although it might not help Avery and Dassey, the documentary and the large outcry it prompted have shed light on the broken justice system we currently accept as fair.
In my honest opinion, there is absolutely no way the prosecution in either case was able to prove without a reasonable doubt that Avery and his nephew were guilty of brutally sexually assaulting and murdering Halbach.
How can people like OJ Simpson, who practically confessed to murder after his trial, walk free while people like Avery are forced to live out the remainder of their life in jail?
We should ask the same question for people like Dassey, who had his youth ripped away from him.
He was forced to spend what should have been the best days of his life behind bars.
I’m not saying that Avery and Dassey are innocent.
I don’t, nor will I ever, know what actually happened on that Halloween night when Halbach was murdered.
What I do know is that two families have now had their hearts broken for a crime that was certainly not proven without a reasonable doubt.
As a society, we need to ask ourselves, “Is our current justice system really the best we could do?”
I hope the answer would be a resounding no from all of us.
I’ll be honest, I’m not entirely sure how we could fix the damaged system nor am I sure I will ever know.
I am sure that allowing just any 12 Joe Schmo’s to decide who walks free and who is sentenced to life in prison is not the best we could come up with.
But if we hope to get anywhere on these kinds of issues, we have to continue to voice our opinions without backing down.
We are a democracy, and, contrary to popular jaded belief, our thoughts and opinions do matter.
We know that Avery and Dassey deserve better for what they’ve been through.
We deserve better.
tatadams@indiana.edu
@TatianaDeWitt
