Steven Avery from “Making A Murderer” on Netflix (Netflix)
Steven Avery’s attorney is asking for a new trial or evidentiary hearing concerning the murder of Teresa Halbach
In 2007, Steven Avery was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Teresa Halbach and the details of his case were later documented in the 2017 Netflix series, “Making a Murderer.” Five years after the release of that popular docu-series, further evidence has presented itself leading to Avery’s lawyer pushing for a new trial.
Halbach, the woman whose murder landed Avery behind bars, was a photographer who visited his home to take pictures of a minivan that was to be sold on the website Autotrader. When she disappeared on October 31, 2005, police followed her timeline back to Avery’s house, and adjoining auto salvage yard, where they found her car and fragments of what appeared to be human bones in a nearby fire pit, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Blood found within Halbach’s vehicle turned out to be a match to Avery’s, but it was suggested by Avery’s defense that the evidence had been planted.
A series of twists and turns directing guilt towards Avery and also Brendan Dassey, Avery’s nephew, eventually landed on Avery alone when it was determined that Dassey’s confession to his involvement in the crime had been coerced, but Avery’s defense has not given up on the case.
“Two new witnesses have emerged in Mr. Avery’s case with new and compelling evidence about a murder mystery that has intrigued a worldwide audience,” Defense attorney Kathleen Zellner wrote in a motion for post-conviction relief filed Tuesday in Manitowoc County court in Wisconsin, per coverage by Fox News. “The rush to judgment and tunnel vision that led to the arrest, prosecution and conviction of Mr. Avery is exposed by these new witnesses who provide new and undisputed evidence that directly links Bobby Dassey to the murder of Teresa Halbach and the framing of Mr. Avery.”
Bobby Dassey, brother of Brendan Dassey, was also featured in the “Making a Murderer” documentary series and was himself considered a person of interest in the case at the time of the original trial. Part of the new evidence being presented in hopes of a new trial for Avery includes a recording of a phone call to the Manitowoc County Sheriff’s Office in which a man named Thomas Sowinski claims to have seen “Bobby and someone else pushing Halbach’s vehicle onto Avery’s salvage yard,” according to Fox News. Avery’s trial lawyers are claiming that they never received documentation of this call.
“Mr. Avery does not have to prove who committed this terrible crime to receive relief. This is not his intent or purpose,” Zellner says. “However, he does have a right to prove he did not receive a fair trial . . . This new evidence creates a reasonable probability that, had the jury heard the new evidence, it would have had a reasonable doubt as to the defendant’s guilt. Therefore Mr. Avery should be granted a new trial.”
Avery’s defense pushed for a similar motion in 2021, which was ultimately rejected by the court.