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Netflix

Trial by social media: Steven Avery's defence lawyer takes the case to Twitter to reveal new facts

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By Tony Connelly, Sports Marketing Reporter

February 23, 2016 | 8 min read

Netflix documentary series ‘Making a Murderer’ stimulated a tidal wave of discussion in the news and online since its release late last year with viewers continuing to speculate whether the jailed Steven Avery was indeed the real killer.

Making a murderer

making a murderer

Theories fuelled by unanswered questions from the trial dominated social media in the weeks following the premier of the 10-part series.

Similar to the Serial podcast which documented the case of Adnan Syed, who was jailed for the murder of his ex-girlfriend amid ‘questionable’ evidence, Avery’s case looks set to continue to feature in social media amid the possibility of new evidence or a retrial.

One of the obvious dangers of the immense popularity of an ongoing criminal case is that it will influence those chosen to be part of the jury.

Since the show was made available on Netflix many news stories have revealed evidence which was left out of the trail, casting doubt over the documentary’s position that Avery was clearly not guilty.

Social media will undoubtedly influence any retrial which might take place, it is now a court of judgement in and of itself and defence attorney for Avery, Kathleen Zellner, appears to understand the pearls of this.

The Chicago-based lawyer took over the case in January, joined by Tricia Bushnell of the Midwest Innocence Project , and has taken the case to Twitter, highlighting what she sees as major flaws in the prosecution’s case.

The first of many tweets raises the inconsistencies of the forensic evidence: (note SA = Steven Avery, TH = Teresa Halbach).

She touches on the fact that Teresa’s DNA isn’t on her own key:

Zellner questions why there would be blood in the RAV4 if she was only moved from Steven’s trailer to the burn pit:

(Note BD = Brendan Dassey).

Zellner also claimed that seven of her tweets about the case had been unexplainably deleted. Below are the seven deleted tweets.

One of these tweets included a copy of a letter from prosecutor Ken Kratz to Steven Avery in which he implores Avery to admit his guilt so that Kratz can write a book on the case.

As well as discrediting the prosecution, Zellner also tells TheLipTV that the identity of Halbach’s killer is “fairly obvious if you review the record of the criminal case”.

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