Making a Murderer’s Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey offered fresh hope of pardon after US midterm election results
THE US midterm election results have provided one of the latest twists that could free one of the world’s most talked about convicted murderers.
Democrat Tony Evers seized control of the governorship in Wisconsin from Republican Scott Walker making Steven Avery the unlikeliest possible winner of the night.
The incarcerated star of Netflix's Making A Murderer has been given fresh hope following the incredibly narrow result in his native state.
In a nail-biting race, Tony Evers snatched control of the governorship of the state with 49.6 per cent of the vote.
He is now required to create a pardon board by the Wisconsin constitution, something his predecessor Scott Walker, failed to do.
Jerome Buting, Steven Avery's trial lawyer for the murder of Teresa Halbach, has now demanded the Governor-elect free Avery and his nephew Brendan Dassey.
Buting, who was replaced as Avery's legal team by Kathleen Zellner, now tours the US giving talks about Making A Murderer.
He tweeted that the Democratic governor should "investigate the culture of corruption in Manitowoc County".
Buting also pleaded with Evers to open files from the TH (Teresa Halbach) investigation and reverse the Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey convictions.
The lawyer had previously tweeted that Governor Walker and his Attorney General were the two top officials "determined to keep SA & BD convicted."
The elected Governor can issue pardons but Republican Scott Walker had previously vowed to not intervene in the Avery case, despite any evidence the Making a Murderer claimed to uncover.
"Just because a documentary on TV says something doesn't mean that's actually what the evidence shows,” he told.
"The bottom line is that there was a crime that was committed a decade ago.
"There is a system...by which individuals can petition the courts to get relief like others have done in the past that shows that someone might actually be innocent.
"But I am not going to override a system that is already put in place."
Avery is currently serving life in prison at Wisconsin’s Waupun Correctional Institution.
In 1985 he was falsely convicted of sexually assaulting a young, female jogger.
It took 18 years for his conviction to be overturned and he was given a $400,000 (£305,000) payout in compensation.
Days later he was re-arrested and charged with Teresa Halbach's murder, kidnapping, sexual assault and mutilation of a corpse on November 11, 2005.
Avery’s 16-year-old nephew Brendan Dassey was then arrested in March 2006 for being party to her first-degree murder and was convicted in April 2007 after a nine-day trial.
During interrogations, the police stated he had confessed in detail to helping Avery carry out the rape, killing and dismemberment of Halbach.
His confession was used as the foundation of Dassey's trial, which lacked physical evidence linking him to the murder.
However, in June 2006 he recanted his confession and claimed he had been coerced.
In August 2016, a US federal judge overturned Dassey’s murder conviction.
He told Dassey, now 29, that he would be released within 90 days.
But this decision was thrown into jeopardy in September 2016, when prosecutors appealed the ruling which in a 4-3 ruling at a US Appeals Court, found the confession to be voluntary.
On June 25, 2018, the Supreme Court Justices agreed not to review the Appeals Court ruling - but no reason was provided for the decision.
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The series has had millions gripped since it was first released on Netflix in 2015.
The creators have since revealed they could make a third season of the hit series and revealed that they think Steven Avery will be acquitted.
Meanwhile, former Wisconsin district attorney Ken Krantz claimed the hit documentary had used deceptive editing and left out key evidence to trick its viewers.
- Making A Murderer: Part 2 recently debuted on Netflix
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