It barely needs an introduction but just in case, the Netflix series Making A Murderer is centered on Steven Avery, a man falsely imprisoned for 18 years for the rape of a woman before being exonerated. Two years after his release, he was arrested for the murder a young woman called Teresa Halbach. You can read more about Steven Avery and the case here, but beware of spoilers.
Last week, Steven Avery’s ex-fiancé, Jodi Stachowski gave an interview in which she called him a ‘monster’, ’not innocent’ and said she had asked Moira Demos and Laura Ricciardi to cut .
Demos and Ricciardi spoke about the claims during Sunday’s Television Critics Association Press Tour. ‘I can’t say why Jodi Stachowski is saying what she is in the media today,' said Demos, 'What I can say is when we filmed with her nine years ago, this is what she was saying to us. And what’s in the series is an accurate portrayal of what she was saying and feeling at the time.’
Ricciardi added that, ‘We showed Steven Avery, warts and all. We showed all of his priors, and we included information to the extent we could accurately fact check it and we had multiple sources for it. Just because someone is coming forward now with a narrative, their interpretation of something doesn’t make it factual, doesn’t make it true.’
When asked whether they believed he was innocent Demos diplomatically said, ‘I think there are so many questions about the reliability of this prosecution, that it’s hard to rely on these verdicts.'
There have been murmurings of a follow up season of MAM, with the directors mentioning that ‘in the past four weeks is have several phone calls with Steven Avery which we have recorded with an eye toward including them in future episodes,’ but that ‘significant developments’ would have to occur for production to start. Netflix chief content editor, Ted Serandos, also address the idea of a second season saying that ‘the story is still unfolding, so we’ll certainly take a look at it.’
On top of this, The Innocent Killer, a book by prosecutor Michael Griesbach, who actually worked on the case to overturn Avery’s original rape conviction and appears briefly in the first episode of MAM, will be released by Windmill Books on 11th February. The book, which was originally published in 2014 by the American Bar Association, discusses Steven Avery’s story and the American judicial system.
Like this? You might also be interested in:
Here Are 7 Crime Documentaries To Watch After You've Finished Making A Murderer
Follow Chemmie on Twitter @chemsquier
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.