The White House has responded to the petition inspired by Netflix's Making a Murderer and it is not exactly a positive one.

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Unfortunately for the hundreds of thousands of people who signed the petition to free Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey via a presidential pardon, it has been rejected. By law, President Barack Obama cannot pardon an accused criminal unless the offense is on the federal level. As Avery and Dassey were accused under Wisconsin's justice system, President Obama would not be allowed to pardon either inmates.

"This clemency authority empowers the President to exercise leniency towards persons who have committed federal crimes. Under the Constitution, only federal criminal convictions, such as those adjudicated in the United States District Courts, may be pardoned by the President," the White House statement reads. "In addition, the President's pardon power extends to convictions adjudicated in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia and military court-martial proceedings. However, the President cannot pardon a state criminal offense."

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Getting into specifics, the statement says, "Since Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey are both state prisoners, the President cannot pardon them. A pardon in this case would need to be issued at the state level by the appropriate authorities."

Making a Murderer chronicles the story of Avery's multiple criminal charges and Dassey's eventual involvement. Avery was charged with sexual assault back in 1985 and served 18 years in prison before being exonerated due to discovered DNA evidence. Then, in 2005, Avery and Dassey were charged with the murder of photographer Teresa Halbach. The docuseries attempts to show evidence of corruption within the justice system to prove that both Avery and Dassey are innocent after all.

Making a Murderer is available to stream now on Netflix.

Tags
Making a Murderer, Television, Netflix