Netflix\u2019s latest original hit, Making a Murderer,<\/i> is the latest obsession for Internet streaming media buffs.<\/p>\n
The show, which premiered on Dec. 18, focuses on Steven Avery, a man incarcerated for 18 years for a crime he did not commit.<\/p>\n
The first episode of the series was shared on YouTube, something Netflix had not tried before. It has since become the latest fixation in Netflix binge watching culture.<\/p>\n
The ten part documentary series was made by filmmakers Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos throughout ten years. According to The Daily Beast, <\/i>the two first heard of Avery\u2019s case in 2003, while both were graduate film students in New York City.<\/p>\n
The setting for the documentary is in rural and unassuming Manitowoc County, Wisconsin. In 1985, Steven Avery is falsely accused of the sexual assault and attempted murder of Penny Beernsten. Prior to his conviction, Steven had been in trouble for animal abuse, burglary, and for threatening his cousin, who was married to a local police officer. When investigating Beernsten\u2019s assault, police officials failed to focus on her actual perpetrator Gregory Allen, who assaulted another woman while Avery was incarcerated. This, along with other questionable factors, leads the audience to believe the police wanted Avery in jail, regardless of his innocence.<\/p>\n
Eighteen years later, in 2002, DNA evidence proves Avery\u2019s innocence, and he is exonerated. Avery then sues Manitowoc County for $36 million on the basis of wrongful incarceration. However, two years later, he is arrested for the murder of Teresa Halbach.<\/p>\n
At first, the case against Avery largely stood on evidence found on his property after a week long search, and many were skeptical of Avery\u2019s involvement in it due to his past false conviction. However, it was not until his 16-year-old nephew, Brendan Dassey, who was his alibi, confessed to participating in the brutal crime, that even some of Avery\u2019s most faithful supporters turned on him. Though Dassey\u2019s interrogation stands as problematic due to detectives coercing him for hours, the evidence was enough for Avery to be convicted and sentenced to life in prison without parole in 2007.<\/p>\n