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Steven Avery Pens Letter To ‘Making A Murderer’ Fans — Wants Every Forensic Test Done To Prove He’s Innocent

By Patricia Grannum
Published on: 13:56 PST, Jan 30, 2016

Steven Avery, the subject of the Netflix true crime docu-series, Making a Murderer, has written a new letter from behind bars calling for every forensic test to be done on the evidence in his case to prove he’s innocent, E! Online reports.

Steven Avery is in jail for life without the possibility of parole after he was convicted of killing Theresa Halbach, a photographer with Autotrader Magazine. Avery had previously been released from prison for rape after new tests of DNA evidence exonerated him. The Wisconsin man has maintained his innocence in the murder case and claims that he is being framed by law enforcement in his county. Authorities have routinely denied this. Avery’s nephew, Brendan Dassey, has been convicted as an accomplice to the Theresa Halbach murder and also received a life sentence.

As E! Online reports, Making a Murderer has stirrred up interest in the Avery case and there have been calls for his and Dassey’s cases to be reopened. He has a new legal team and has recently filed a motion of release. In his handwritten letter, made public via his lawyer, Kathleen Zellner’s Twitter page, he still maintains his innocence and wants the evidence to be re-examined.

This isn’t the first time that Avery has sent a letter from behind bars. Last week he sent a letter to a Milwaukee TV station where he again stated that he is not a murderer.

“The real killer is still out there. Who is he stalking now? I am really innocent of this case and that is the truth!!! The truth will set me free!!!!!!!”

In an interview with NBC’s Dateline, Zellner said that she absolutely believes that Steven Avery is innocent. She said that she believes innovations in forensic testing could free her client.

“Generally, since 2007, there have been significant advances in forensic testing… the clearest way to do this is with scientific testing,” Kathleen Zellner said in her first TV interview since taking on the Avery case. “Am I going to tell you exactly what it is? I am not. But it’s been a long time. There was a lot of evidence that wasn’t tested.”

Zellner is an Illinois lawyer who has built a career around working on wrongful convictions.

Ken Kratz, the district attorney who prosecuted Avery and Dassey, has always defended the way the case was handled by him and his team.

“Steven Avery’s guilty and deserves to be right where he is,” Kratz said. He was filmed in Making A Murderer but was not interviewed for the docu-series.

As NBC.com reports, Kratz has said that all of the evidence points to Avery being guilty.

“With any one of these facts, you can come up with a ‘what-if’ scenario,” he said. “But at some point this conspiracy theory collapses under its own weight.”

After the Avery conviction, Kratz went through a legal scandal of his own. He was forced to resign as Calumet District Attorney, when it was discovered that he was sexually harassing a domestic violence victim via text messages. Kratz now has a private legal practice.

Dateline also spoke to Jerry Buting, a lawyer on the defense team in the Theresa Halbach case. He also still believes that Steven Avery should not be in jail because he’s innocent of the crime.

“From the evidence I’ve looked at I think he is innocent,” he said. “I think he certainly was not guilty beyond a reasonable doubt under the evidence that was presented.”

[Photo by Morry Gash/AP Photo, Pool, File]

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