‘Making a Murderer’ Pardon Petitions Top 200000 Signatures

The obsession is so real that thousands of people have signed a petition asking for the pardon of Steven Avery, who the documentary claims was wrongfully convicted.

Avery was eventually exonerated and released, but was sent back to prison after he was convicted of murdering photographer Theresa Halbach. Whether it’s merely leaving unpleasant reviews on Yelp or starting petitions to free Avery, viewers of the series have become as enraged by the lack of justice for Avery as they are enraptured by the show.

Nearly 300,000 signatures have been collected by petitions in support of the 53-year-old on the official White House petition website and Change.org, after his story featured in the hugely popular Netflix documentary Making a Murderer.

It seems viewers everywhere are addicted to the Netflix doc-series that follows the life of Steven Avery, a Wisconsin man who was jailed for 18 years for a crime he didn’t commit.

Avery is now serving a life sentence for killing Halbach.

The makers of the documentary Making A Murderer – which has generated petitions, praise from celebrities and sparked online debate – have shared what they describe as a “significant revelation” about the murder trial at the centre of the series. It asks President Barack Obama to pardon Avery and Dassey, who’s also serving a life sentence. The unnamed juror also alerted Ricciardi and her co-creator Moira Demos about a central issue within the jury’s decision.

If the White House petition reaches 100,000 signatures by the mid-January deadline, it will have to respond publicly. His release triggered major criminal justice reform legislation, and he filed a lawsuit that threatened to expose corruption in local law enforcement and award him millions of dollars. The Netflix series takes the view that it’s possible he was framed by the sheriff’s department after bringing a civil suit against them for the previous wrongful conviction. Both Avery and Dassey have had their respective post-conviction appeals processes largely exhausted at this point, with the State Supreme Court and Courts of Appeals refusing to hear new arguments.