Steven Avery, the subject of Netflix’s true crime series Making A Murderer, has been denied an important motion which called for new DNA testing to be used in his case.
Avery’s lawyer Kathleen Zellner filed the motion on December 17 as part of her 22,000-page appellate brief, a document which contained all of the legal arguments for why her client should be freed. Zellner is attempting to get Avery, who is currently serving a life sentence for the murder of Teresa Halbach in 2007, a new trial.
However, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals has now denied Avery’s motion, which requested the use of new “rapid DNA identification” testing on “suspected human skeletal remains” that were recovered but never identified during the investigation into the murder of Halbach in 2005.
Speaking to Rolling Stone, Zellner was upbeat despite this latest setback. “The Appellate Court did not deny the bone testing, they denied our request to remand [the case] to the Circuit Court… to allow the bones to be tested,” she said. “The Appellate Court did not want to add a new issue of bone testing.”
In a separate interview with Newsweek, the lawyer added about this latest development: “The appellate court wants to resolve the issues on Avery’s current appeal before the new issue re: bone testing is addressed. The state claims if Avery wins appeal, bone testing may become unnecessary.
“The bottom line is that the appellate court is not preventing Avery from doing the bone testing after the appeal is completed or by agreement with the new attorney general while the appeal is pending.”
Last month, former Manitowoc County police sergeant Andrew Colborn sued both Netflix and Making A Murderer filmmakers Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos for defamation.