White House: Obama can’t pardon ‘Making a Murderer’ convicts

Since its December release, Netflix’s Making a Murder has inspired a wave of citizen action, including a petition asking President Obama to pardon the two felons at the heart of the docu-series.

Avery and Dassey are the protagonists of the popular Netflix documentary series “Making a Murderer”.

As we reported earlier, the White House did respond about the petition to pardon “Making A Murderer” subject Steven Avery, but as the decision to convict him was at a state level, they are unable to do anything.

The official response is pretty lengthy as it includes a bar graph and explanation of POTUS’ pardoning power and the limitations that comes with it. “Since Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey are both state prisoners, the President can not pardon them”, the reply reads.

“We are excited to share with viewers the latest in this compelling saga”, said Henry Schleiff, group president of Investigation Discovery, American Heroes Channel and Destination America.

President Barack Obama has the power to offer a reprieve or pardon only “towards persons who have committed federal crimes”.

Unsurprisingly, given how much people keep talking about Making A Murderer, the petition managed to gather more than 129,700 signatures in only a few weeks.

In 2005, Avery, and his learning-challenged teenaged nephew Brendan Dassey, were arrested and later sentenced to life in prison for the killing of photographer Teresa Halbach on their rural scrap auto property near Manitowoc.

The petition now has almost 130,000 signatures, leading The White House to issue an official statement on the matter.

Still, the White House acknowledges that sometimes the justice system fails, something President Obama has worked to correct.

As Business Insider previously reported, presidential pardons can only be applied to convictions handed down in federal courts.

The statement goes on to state that during his time in office Obama has granted 184 commutations (noted as more than the last five presidents combined) and issued 66 pardons.