Making a Murderer

Hello, this is Teresa with Auto Trader magazine.

I'm the photographer and just giving a call to let you know

that I could come out there today um, in the afternoon.

It would probably be around 2:00 or even a little later.

Um... again, it's Teresa.

If you could please give me a call back and let me know if that'll work for you.

Thank you.

So let's say I die before I'm 31.

Or let's say I die tomorrow.

I don't think I will. I think I have a lot more to do.

I just want to know, whenever I do die...

I just want people I love to know that whenever I die...

that I was happy.

That I was happy with what I did with my life.

For 18 years, Steven Avery was limited in everything he did,

after being convicted for a crime he didn't commit.

Now state lawmakers want answers as to why this happened to him.

While in prison, Avery's wife divorced him.

Following his release, he lived for a time in an ice shanty.

Steven Avery is now back home, but for 18 years

he sat in prison for a sexual assault he did not commit.

Avery says he forgives the woman for accusing him of the crime,

but will never forgive Manitowoc County law enforcement.

"Guilty." That's all they think, is the guy's guilty right away.

So they should look into things more.

Steven was becoming like a celebrity in the criminal justice system.

Politicians were posing for photo ops with Steve Avery.

Politicians from the governor down to a state legislator,

who would be a prime mover on the Avery task force.

An innocent man was taken from his home,

taken from his family, accused of crimes he did not commit.

It was rough, those 18 years.

But I had to do it day by day.

You know, to keep going.

Something had to be looked at to see how this happened

and use that maybe as a catalyst to look at more than just that case from 1985,

but the whole system as a whole.

What kind of reforms get us closer to truth and justice in the system?

I chair the judiciary committee,

so I started to develop a task force with an eye towards

"how can we prevent this type of thing from happening again?"

My family stuck around for a while, then...

it was hard.

So then I told the old lady to leave.

That was the hardest part.

Everyone on the assembly floor, if I recall,

stood up, gave him a standing ovation

for what he had had to go through...

and their own kind of "I'm sorry for what happened to you from the system."

People on the task force, people at the committee hearings,

every one of them is sitting there thinking, "What if that had been me?

What if that was my children that I didn't get to see or play ball with

or read books to at night for 18 years?"

Not a day goes by that I don't think about Mr. Avery,

his family and friends and the suffering they endured...

When it was time to leave, I said, "Steve, could I give you a hug?"

And he just grabbed me in a big bear hug and I said to him, you know,

"I'm very sorry, Steve. I'm so sorry."

And he said, "It's OK. It's over."

Everything was going good.

I was working by the yard.

I'm trying to do my best, stay out of trouble and just live happy.

The best thing?

Probably when I met Jodi.

Then I felt that I could be loved again and I could love somebody again.

And have a future again.

The clarity of this situation,

there are lots of situations where people don't talk about compensation or whatever

'cause it's not clear that they didn't do it.

You just know that there's not enough that you can keep 'em in prison.

But this was so clear and the circumstances so troubling,

I think, to most people in the state.

I wasn't familiar with the statute on prisoner compensation

for being wrongfully convicted.

And they said, "$5,000 a year, $25,000 cap,"

and I just kind of scoffed and I said,

"My goodness, it should be $25,000 a year." Um...

And that's where $450,000 came from.

I went out to the yard many times to see Steve.

You know, see if he was all right and adjusting and, um,

you know, what's going on in his life and things like that.

And he says, "Right now, I want to be by my parents,

I want to work in the yard, I want to try to... try to fit in."

I think he felt that when he got out of prison,

if he would've left the state or even ran up to Crivitz and hid out,

I think he thought that Manitowoc County was forcing him to do that.

And he wasn't gonna let anybody run him out of town.

You know, he was gonna stay here and try to get some of his life back.

And I think he wanted Manitowoc County to see that he was getting his life back.

Steven Avery spent 18 years in prison

for something he didn't do.

Today marks one year since Avery went home free.

His time spent out of prison has been with his family.

It feels real good. Yeah. We can all be together again.

He's never since spoken with the people who put him behind bars.

Is there any way you can forgive them?

I doubt it.

They know they did wrong.

He and his lawyers plan to file a lawsuit seeking damages.

Avery says money will help him get back on his feet,

but it can never make up for lost time.

The lawsuit, from Steven's perspective, and this is based on...

what he said to Penny Beerntsen

at the hearing in front of the Avery Task Force,

was really about, he didn't want what happened to him to happen to anybody else.

But he also didn't want what happened to her to happen to anybody else.

And it clearly had because of what Gregory Allen did

while Steven Avery was sitting in prison.

The essence of the civil suit says that the district attorney and the sheriff

were obliged constitutionally to turn that exculpatory evidence about Gregory Allen

over to the defense.

It's not a subtle, um... lawsuit,

in that this is a gross constitutional violation.

We've alleged $36,000,000 in damages or a million dollars per year

for the years that he spent in prison,

and then the other $18,000,000 for penalty damages

or deterrents damages.

From Steven's perspective, it couldn't have had less to do

with what the numbers were.

It was entirely about, let's identify who did what here.

Let's make sure that they are held up as examples to everybody else

in law enforcement as to what you do not do,

and what the consequences are when you do what you should not do.

What we're really talking about is accountability.

Trying to prevent another family broken.

So it don't happen again.

When Mrs. Beerntsen gave the description of her assailant

at the hospital that night, did you say that it sounded like Steven Avery?

No, sir.

Later on that evening, you made that statement, is that right?

- Object to form. - You may answer.

I do not remember if it was that evening or possibly at the Sheriff's Department.

You made the statement that the description sounded like Steven Avery,

you just don't remember whether you said it at the hospital

or whether you said it at the Sheriff's Department later on.

- Is that... - I'm gonna object to that.

- Is that correct? - Because that's not what she said.

And I object to the form.

Why don't you guys all just get sworn and testify here?

- Let the witness answer. - I didn't...

I'm not stopping the witness from answering.

You're trying to tell her what to say.

When you said, "You said this," and she didn't say that,

- I'm gonna object... - Yes, she did.

...to make sure that the record is correct.

For us, the attorney general's report was a blessing

in that at least some of the people who were being questioned

did not anticipate any personal liability to themselves,

felt like they were talking law enforcement to law enforcement,

and so were fairly candid.

So that was very helpful to us in terms of the discovery

that we needed to conduct of those people in the civil suit environment,

by which time they did know about civil liability,

but we already had their remarks down in investigatory reports.

And then the statement says,

"Dvorak described Avery as such a dirty man

that every time he would come to the jail,

the sheriff's deputies would have to make Avery take a shower."

- Do you see that? - Yes, sir.

Did you tell that to Ms. Strauss?

Possibly, but not in those words.

In what words?

- That he... - Do you remember the words you told her?

I'm gonna object to the form of the question.

OK.

I do not remember specifically.

But reading this, this is not my words.

Well, if you don't remember, how can you tell us that?

Objection. Argumentative.

- Go ahead, ma'am. - You can answer.

I would say I do not speak or talk, converse, in this kind of verbiage.

Well, we actually had instances where people attempted to change

what they had said to the investigators for the attorney general's office

when we were deposing them.

And of course we could produce the investigatory reports

and say this report says you said... thus and so.

She may have taken the words out of context.

What context?

The more attempts there are to wiggle out of prior statements,

the weaker become the rationalizations.

So we now know that the person Mrs. Beerntsen described to you

was Gregory Allen, right?

- No. - No?

No.

Well, we know that Gregory Allen was the assailant of Mrs. Beerntsen

because the DNA has shown that.

Well, you know that. I don't know that.

I don't take what's in the paper as gospel truth, believe me.

Well, do you take DNA evidence that's been done by the state crime lab

- and become the basis for vacating... - That there was...

Let me finish. Vacating a judgment of conviction of Steven Avery,

is that enough for you to know that Steven Avery did not commit this assault?

No. Where did the evidence come from? That's all I'm asking.

Are you saying you doubt the DNA examination...

That there was a match? I believe there was a match.

- OK, so you... - Has DNA evidence been fabricated before?

- Yes. I don't know. I don't know. - You think that happened here?

So you actually think that your sketch is more valid evidence

than the DNA evidence that's inculpated Gregory Allen.

My drawing was the result of what image she had in her head.