Character recaps of Making a Murderer Season 1
Making a murderer: A new season of Making A Murderer, premiering on Netflix on October 19, revisits the murder of Teresa Halbach, and the cases against Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey, who are currently serving time for this crime.
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For those of you who cannot devote ten hours to the first series, here is a brief recap of everything we know about Steven Avery and the investigation that led to his eventual prosecution for the murder of Teresa Halbach.
STEVEN AVERY in Making a Murderer Season 1
He grew up on the family’s 40-acre salvage yard in Manitowoc County, Wisconsin on the family’s 40-acre salvage yard, where his parents Allan and Dolores Avery were born in 1962. He “barely functioned in school” due to his low IQ of 70 (the average IQ in the UK is 100). As a result of their association with petty crime, the Avery family was known and despised by locals. Stephen Irwin admitted to various crimes, including burglary in 1981, and he later pled guilty to animal cruelty after burning his family’s cat in a bonfire. As he describes his actions in the series, he says, “I was young and stupid.”.
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When Steven Avery was arrested in 1985 for raping and assaulting Penny Beerntsen, his crime spree stepped up a notch. Her attacker, Avery, was sentenced to 32 years in prison after she identified him in a police lineup after she was viciously attacked as she ran alongside Lake Michigan.
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Recap Moments
Despite serving 18 years in prison for his crime, Steven Avery lost more than just two decades of his life in those 18 years before being found not guilty. Steven Avery married single mother Lori Mathiesen, and became step-father to her son, Jason, before he was convicted of raping Penny Beerntsen and attempting to murder her. Their family included Rachel, Jenny, Steven and William, and they also have two stepchildren. Lori filed for divorce from Avery in 1988 after years of visiting him in prison.
Is it reasonable for Steve Avery to have been sent to prison for Penny Bernstein’s Rap even though he didn’t do it?
Avery’s exoneration is our first introduction to him. Steven Avery, then 43-years-old and long-bearded, was released from prison after 18 long years on September 11, 2003, in the early episodes of Making a Murderer season 1. Following a development in DNA technology, the real perpetrator of Penny Beerntsen’s violent rape, Gregory Allen, was identified.
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Steven and his family believe that police blamed him for the 1985 crime because of an earlier conflict he’d had with one of his cousins, Sandra Morris. As it turned out, Sandra was married to William Morris, a deputy with the Manitowoc County Sheriff’s Department, but the couple had broken up after Sandra publicly accused Steven Avery of harassing and harassing her in front of others. Steven then ran her off the road in his car, pulled a gun on her (he said the weapon was unloaded) and ran off the road.
At the time Penny Beernsten reported Sandra Morris’ rape, Judy Dvorak, who was also a sheriff’s deputy, was working. As Beernsten described her attacker, she told police it sounded like Steven Avery. Despite an alibi, 16 witnesses and various other evidence to suggest he wasn’t responsible, the police department succeeded in convincing a court that Steven Avery was behind the rape (undoubtedly due to their bias against him because of the Sandra Morris conflict). He was sentenced to 32 years in prison after just four hours of deliberations by the jury.
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During the time Steven Avery was serving time in prison for a crime he didn’t commit, Gregory Allen, the real perpetrator, went on to attack two more women.
STEVEN AVERY AFTER RELEASED FROM PRISON
After Steven Avery’s release in 2003, things started to improve for him. In a restaurant shortly after being released, Steven ate a rack of ribs and told journalist Bill Martens, “It’s wonderful. There’s breeze and cars and everything else – all new.”
The media flocked to cover Steven’s return and welcomed him back with open arms. Sandy began a new relationship with him, and the two moved into a trailer together.
Steven’s wrongful conviction was found to have been the result of no wrongdoing on the part of Manitowoc County’s police after an initial investigation by Wisconsin’s Department of Justice. The appeal was launched after evidence came to light that another police agency had given the Manitowoc Sheriff’s Office information suggesting Allen was likely the rape victim. This data was ignored. The county, the former sheriff Tom Kocourek, and the former district attorney Denis Vogel are being sued for $36 million (around £27 million at today’s exchange rate).
After Steven Avery became a public face for wrongful convictions, and the state of Wisconsin made a law to ensure such a thing would never happen again, the state of Wisconsin decided to ensure such things in the future do not happen. On October 31, 2005, the Avery Bill (later renamed the Criminal Justice Reforms Bill), passed into law. That’s the exact same day Avery’s situation got worse all over again.
