'Making a Murderer' Update: Police Officer Claims Filmmakers Committed 'Grave Injustice'
While many Making a Murderer viewers side with Steven Avery and the defense, not everyone is so willing to do so.
Netflix's docuseries Making a Murderer attempts to explore possible corruption within the Manitowoc County Sheriff's Department, specifically in the case of Avery, who was convicted for the 2005 murder of Teresa Halbach.
The series mostly explores Avery's case from the perspective of the defense, but one police officer sees the case very differently.
Barney Doyle of PoliceOne penned a new article arguing for the prosecution, and blasting filmmakers Moira Demos and Laura Ricciardi.
"You can't watch that show without feeling like a great injustice occurred in Wisconsin," he writes in the piece. "It did. But it was committed by Demos and Ricciardi, not the criminal justice system."
He further explains, "Demos and Ricciardi aren't attorneys. They are not a necessary evil of an imperfect justice system. They are opportunists. They were following the story of a man who was convicted of a rape that he didn't commit. It was a sad and compelling story. Not only was Avery sent to prison for a rape he didn't commit, but the actual rapist went on to commit other heinous crimes. They could have told that story without exploiting a tragedy. But the ending didn't happen like they were expecting."
Doyle noted that Demos and Ricciardi set out to chronicle Avery's previous rape case, for which he would eventually be exonerated, but things changed when he was later charged with the murder of Halbach.
"Stories need heroes, or lessons, or calls to action. They had none of it. They had an awful man who committed an awful crime. His previous wrongful conviction was reduced to a minor point in the plot of a larger story about an evil man. A story nobody was particularly interested in hearing," Doyle explains.
Doyle goes on to claim that Demos and Ricciardi "had to have known" they weren't telling the whole truth, but in the end, "it was a story they could sell. Now it's a national phenomenon and Demos and Ricciardi will get flooded with funding for whatever project they choose to make next. Consequences be damned."
Demos and Ricciardi have not responded.
Making a Murderer is currently available to stream on Netflix.
