Making a Murderer: Disturbing real-life tale that has divided a nation
RIGHT now, murder is hot!” booms an American TV anchor from a piece of archival footage about the Steven Avery case. The clip is weaved into the fourth series of Netflix’s true crime documentary series Making a Murderer. She could be talking about the series itself, which has fascinated audiences since its release just before Christmas, and has got everyone from high-powered celebs to your local shopkeeper talking about it.
In 1985, Avery was imprisoned for the brutal sexual assault of a woman near his hometown in Wisconsin. The police got the wrong man. In 2003, he was exonerated based on DNA evidence. His case became a cause célèbre, triggering a criminal justice reform bill bearing his name. Two years later, he was back in prison as the prime suspect for the murder of a 25-year-old woman whose body was found on his property, a family car-salvage yard.
