On the "Today" show this morning, "Making a Murderer" filmmakers revealed a new development in the Steven Avery case that's captured the nation's Netflix accounts.
According to the directing team of Moira Demos and Laura Ricciardi, a juror from the original 2005 Teresa Halbach murder trial contacted the two filmmakers and said that the juror does not believe Steven Avery was proven to be guilty, and that the resulting verdict – a unanimous decision for conviction – came as a result of a "compromise." Ricciardi also noted the juror believes law enforcement was behind some sort of framing of Avery and that he deserves a new trial – one located out of the state. When asked why they initially voted guilty during the trial, Demos shared that the juror "feared for their personal safety."
Here are the full clips from the "Today" show interviews:
Demos and Ricciardi did tell "Today" that no other jurors from the trial had come forward to corroborate or agree with the unknown juror's claims.
In other "Making a Murderer" juror news, however, People spoke with another juror, Richard Mahler – who participated in hours of early deliberations before eventually being excused from the trial after his daughter got in a car accident – who noted that there were potential conflicts of interest with two of the jurors. Mahler told the magazine:
"After the trial, I found out...[one juror] was the father of a Manitowoc County Sheriff's deputy," the dismissed juror, Richard Mahler, says. "Another juror, his wife works for the Manitowoc County Clerk's Office."
He adds: "I thought to myself, they shouldn't have been on the jury. That was a conflict of interest."
For more on "Making a Murderer" and the now seemingly ever-changing Avery case, stay tuned.
As much as it is a gigantic cliché to say that one has always had a passion for film, Matt Mueller has always had a passion for film. Whether it was bringing in the latest movie reviews for his first grade show-and-tell or writing film reviews for the St. Norbert College Times as a high school student, Matt is way too obsessed with movies for his own good.
When he's not writing about the latest blockbuster or talking much too glowingly about "Piranha 3D," Matt can probably be found watching literally any sport (minus cricket) or working at - get this - a local movie theater. Or watching a movie. Yeah, he's probably watching a movie.