TV & Radio

Making a Murderer back for a second season in October

Netflix documentary focuses on appeals cases of Steven Avery and nephew Brendan Dassey

Brendan Dassey appears in court at the Manitowoc County Courthouse in Wisconsin in 2007. File photograph: Dan Powers/The Post-Crescent/AP

Wed Sep 26 2018 - 08:39

Netflix's hit true-crime documentary series Making a Murderer will return for a second season on October 19th, focusing on the appeals cases of Steven Avery and his nephew Brendan Dassey.

The new season will look at the post-conviction appeals of Avery, who was sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of first-degree intentional homicide in the 2005 death of photographer Teresa Halbach. Dassey was sentenced to life in prison in 2007 after confessing to the murder.

"Steven and Brendan, their families and their legal and investigative teams have once again graciously granted us access, giving us a window into the complex web of American criminal justice," said executive producers, writers and directors Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos.

“We have chronicled the experience of the convicted and imprisoned, two men each serving life sentences for crimes they maintain they did not commit.”

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Steven Avery listens to testimony in the courtroom at the Calumet County Courthouse in Chilton, Wisconsin in 2007. File photograph: Morry Gash/AP

Since the show debuted in December 2015, both Avery and Dassey have been involved in a lengthy appeal. Dassey’s original confession was judged to have been improperly attained, according to a federal appeals panel that said

he should be re-tried or released.

However, in June this year, the supreme court denied his appeal case.

Avery had his own appeal for a new trial rejected, after his legal team argued that new scientific tests cast doubt on evidence submitted at his original trial.

The first season of Making a Murderer became a sleeper hit, slowly building a huge worldwide fan base and becoming one of the key shows - along with Serial, The Keepers and The Jinx - at the vanguard of a true-crime renaissance.

Making a Murderer's original series sparked massive interest in Avery and Dassey's cases and, a month after it was released, more than 275,000 viewers had signed a petition asking then President Obama to overturn Avery's conviction.

–Guardian

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