(The following contains spoilers for Netflix’s Making A Murderer. If you have not completed the series and don’t want to know what happened, please do not read on.)
Fans of Making A Murderer are familiar with the crack legal team of Dean Strang and Jerry Buting, the two lawyers who fought tirelessly for Steven Avery during his seven week murder trial. Both attorneys have stayed in contact with Steven throughout the years, though they admit in the documentary that it’s more of an informal relationship. Avery (obviously) doesn’t have the funds to maintain a legal team. Strang recently addressed this in an interview with The Daily Beast saying, “It’s clear that he probably needs formal legal representation [for] the specific, concrete things that a lawyer can do in the coming weeks and months.”
Now, just weeks after the release of Making A Murderer, a new legal team has tossed their hat in the ring, taking over perhaps the country’s most controversial (and popular) case. Meet Kathleen Zellner & Tricia Bushnell, who made the announcement in a press release on Twitter.
https://twitter.com/ZellnerLaw/status/685601315112751105
Zellner is noteworthy in that she has won exonerations for 16 clients. Just last week she offered her own theory as to who’s responsible for the murder of Teresa Halbach.
“…whoever deleted Teresa Halbach(‘s) cellphone calls is either the murderer or part of (the) coverup. Either way, the killer is free.”
Tricia Bushnell is the legal director of the Midwest Innocence Project and will, more or less, offer assistance to Zellner’s team.
For now, Avery doesn’t have much to go on legally. As was discussed in the final episode of the series, new evidence or a new witness would have to surface for any judge (especially one in Wisconsin) to make a favorable decision in Avery’s defense. Petitions to the White House and Governor Scott Walker are nice, as is the media attention, but ultimately it doesn’t matter. Something big needs to happen. Someone involved in the possible conspiracy needs to step forward and admit wrongdoing.
Otherwise, Steven Avery (deserving or not) will spend the rest of his life in prison.
