The White House Has Official Responded to Making a Murderer Petition

All this means that Obama can’t pardon Steven Avery or Brendan Dassey because they are both state prisoners so a pardon on their behalf would have to come at the state level.

Professor Keith Findley, a co-director of the Wisconsin Innocence Project, said his organization is not now representing Avery, whose supporters say he was wrongfully convicted in the 2005 death of 25-year-old photographer Teresa Halbach.

The White House responded to a petition calling for the president to pardon Steven Avery. The White House’s response essentially outlines what has been clear from the beginning: the president does not have the power to pardon a state crime.

The petition caused by the “Making a Murderer” Netflix series has now exceeded 125,000 signatures. However, the White House’s response to this petition wasn’t without hope.

The documentary, and Avery’s defense team, suggested that law enforcement officials in Manitowoc County planted evidence against Avery after he filed a $36 million federal civil rights lawsuit against the county over his 1985 conviction. The Administration used the national attention to highlight the amount of commutations and pardons that have occurred under President Obama.

Filmed over a 10-year period, Netflix’s Making a Murderer is the latest series in a new wave of true-crime drama that’s feeding public obsession with the genre. But Walker has been notorious in his time in office for refusing to issue any pardons.

The Department of Justice has previously stated that petitions regarding Avery and Dassey’s cases should be directed at the governor or other appropriate authorities of the state where the person was convicted. “Following our investigation, we expect that “Front Page: The Steven Avery Story” will present crucial testimony and information that addresses numerous questions surrounding Steven Avery”. However, it’s not long after he’s released that Avery finds himself the prime suspect in the murder of Teresa Halbach.

Well into its third week on Netflix, the docuseries “Making a Murderer” is still succeeding at affecting its growing number of viewers.