Making a Murderer – everything that’s happened in the case against Steven Avery since season one of the Netflix true crime series
IT'S been almost three years since the gripping Netflix docuseries Making a Murderer first hit the small screen.
And there's been plenty of developments since for Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey since then, and true crime fans are gearing up for the second season, which drops today.
But what's happened to Steven Avery and his nephew Brendan Dassey since the series released in December 2015?
The end of Part One saw Avery sentenced to life in prison, along Dassey who confessed to helping his uncle kill Teresa Halbach in 2005.
In January 2016, the public rallied around the pair with protesters showing up outside the Manitowoc County Courthouse and a petition demanding their release sent to the White House.
Barack Obama, who was in office at the time, said he "cannot pardon a state criminal offence".
In the same month, Avery filed his last appeal and hired wrongful conviction attorney Kathleen Zellner.
Ken Kratz, the district attorney who prosecuted Avery and Dassey, announced he would write a tell-all book about the case.
In July 2016, Netflix gave the second season the go-ahead and said producers would document the post-conviction process.
A month later, Dassey's conviction for murder and sexual assault was overturned and a judge ordered he should be released from prison.
In August 2016, a motion demanding new scientific testing on the evidence in Avery's case was filed, with his lawyer saying she expected the results to prove her client had been framed by law enforcement.
Avery's love life made headlines in September 2016, when he announced he was engaged to Lynn Hartmann, who he had been dating for eight months - but only met once.
It was revealed a month later that the engagement had been called off.
In October 2016, prosecutors appealed the overturned conviction of Dassey, claiming his confession was legitimate and his release would present a "danger to society".
The following month, the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit blocked his release and ordered he remain in prison pending their decision.
By November that year, Zellner was granted her request to test nine pieces of evidence, including blood flakes on the floor of Halbach's car and blood stains on the front seats.
Things then went quiet until June 2017 when she filed a motion for post-conviction relief and demanded a new trial for Avery.
Among her arguments, Zellner claimed that Halbach’s ex-boyfriend, Ryan Hillegas, had the motive, means and opportunity to kill her, mislead investigators and planted evidence on the Avery property.
In the same month, a three-judge panel denied the State of Wisconsin’s appeal and declined to reinstate Dassey’s conviction, with two of the three saying he should be given a new trial.
Meanwhile, Avery was denied a new trial in October 2017, while his attorney said she would be filing a motion to vacate the judge's decision because it was based on an "incomplete record".
Zellner submitted new evidence and witness affidavits that had not yet been filed with the court when the judgement was handed down.
She pointed at Brendan Dassey's older brother, Bobby Dassey, as a new suspect and claimed that he had lied in his testimony.
Zellner alleged that forensics recovered "images of Ms Halbach" and "violent pornography" on the Dassey family computer which had been accessed at times when only Bobby was home.
Less than a week later, she filed additional documents accusing Brendan and Bobby's mother Barb Janda - Avery's sister - and her husband Scott Tadych of trying to get rid of evidence that implicated Bobby in the crime.
In December 2017, judges ruled that Dassey's confession was not coerced and overturned the decision to give him a new trial.
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Three months later, in February this year, Dassey's defence team asked the US Supreme Court to review his case, but it was declined without explanation in June.
The latest development in the case came in July when Zellner asked the Wisconsin Circuit Court for permission to supplement the record with evidence from the Dassey family computer.
Netflix will release season two of Making a Murderer on October 19.
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