New ‘Making a Murderer’ lawyer on Steven Avery: ‘You would have to be an idiot to hire me and be proved guilty’

Kathleen Zellner has taken on Steven Avery's case

Netflix’s Making a Murderer Part 2 premiered on Friday (October 19) and Steven Avery’s new lawyer Kathleen Zellner says she knows who killed Teresa Halbach.

The series, which debuted in 2015, follows the trial and conviction of Steven Avery and his nephew Brendan Dassey; for the murder of Teresa Halbach over a decade earlier.

The new episodes follow the several developments since the first part of Making a Murderer aired and introduce Avery’s new lawyer Kathleen Zellner.

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Zellner says she was inspired to take on the case after watching the first season of the show. After starting her own law firm in 1991, Zellner has gone on to have one of the highest success rates for overturning wrongful convictions in the United States.

So far, she’s overturned the convictions of 19 men, including a man called Joseph Burrows who had been sentenced to death for the murder of farmer William E. Dulan. Zellner overturned the sentencing after convincing the real killer to confess.

Speaking to the BBC, one of the show’s creators, Moira Demos, said “Kathleen is not a lawyer who works from behind a desk.

“She goes to the crime scene, she gets her hands on the evidence, she does experiments with world renowned scientific experts,” she continued. “What is fascinating about her process is that it is very unconventional and yet very scientific.”

“Kathleen was incredibly gracious,” adds fellow Making a Murderer creator Laura Ricciardi. “What is interesting about her and Steven’s back story is that for a number of years Steven was pursuing Kathleen, they knew about her incredible track record.

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“She has a very vibrant practise, she was very busy with other cases, years later one of her clients who she exonerated brought her attention to the show,” she continued. “She said that when she saw Steven Avery’s reaction to the verdict at his trial, that really won her over and made her decide to take the case.”

Speaking on the show, Zellner says she has “one goal and that’s to overturn the conviction of Steven Avery.”

“It does not matter how long it takes, what it costs or what obstacles we have to overcome – our efforts to win Mr Avery’s freedom will never stop,” she adds. Zellner believes she knows who killed Halbach – and it’s not Avery.

“If you are guilty, I will do a way better job of finding out you are guilty than any prosecutor could,” she adds during the show. “You would have to be an idiot to hire me and be proved guilty.”

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