Making of a Murderer

Lawyers Dean Strang and Jerry Buting

My mother loved murder mysteries. She read one a day. Just plowed through Agatha Chrisite and Perry Mason.  She usually guessed who the murderer was 1/3 of the way through.

Having watched half of "The Making of a Murderer" I cannot guess who killed Teresa Halbach. Steve Avery was accused, but it is far from clear who the murderer is.

But as one of his lawyers said:

"In my view, the people who claim certainty about his guilt are wrong to claim certainty, and the people who claim certainty about his innocence are wrong to claim certainty — and they’re missing the point, which is, what do we do when we’re left with uncertainty? "



 What do we do,  when we're left with uncertainty?  If Steven Avery is a homicidal maniac, then releasing him will almost certainly mean he'll kill again. 

On the other hand, the behavior of the Manitowoc, Wisconsin police was so appalling it is difficult to believe anyone would have voted for conviction. If nothing else, watching them manipulate the simple minded cousin of Steve Avery into saying he participated in a rape and murder was so horrific it is hard to believe any evidence they produced.  I never really believed police could coerce a confession until I saw the episodes shown here. Now, it is completely understandable.  At one point, the nephew confesses and then asks when he can go home because he has homework to finish. 

Even the discovery of the murder victim's car on Steve Avery's  junk yard lot, positioned so it was found within 20 minutes of the search is so incredible, you have to ask: Who would believe this? The guy owns a lot with a thousand cars and he kills a woman and places her car right near the road where it would be found within 20 minutes? And he has a car crusher which could have obliterated it. And inside, the police find a smear of his blood! And, lo and behold. The police had a vile of his blood back at the station.

It makes you think maybe the jury in the O.J. Simpson was not so crazy to simply disbelieve the evidence provided by the police. 

The most uplifting thing about this series is the portrait of the defense lawyers, who are both smart and ethical, something I don't often find myself saying about lawyers. 

One thing they focus on is patterns. In most murders, the lawyers tell you,  it is somebody close to the victim, an enraged spouse, a boyfriend, co worker, especially if they have access to guns or other murder weapons.  I wouldn't have thought that. Apparently, neither did the Manitowoc police. 

You figure, in the case of a single woman, it would be some random, disturbed person who did not know her as a person, someone like the guy in Searching for Mr. Goodbar who does not know his victim beyond a one night stand and he can see her not as a human being but as a representative or a "type."

But the victim here was getting phone calls from someone who a coworker offered to try to get off her back.  There may have been someone stalking her.

Clearly, anyone who watches "Luther" or any number of British police procedurals would believe most women are killed by Hannibal the Cannibal types. If you watch "The Wire" you'd think most women are killed because of their connection to the drug trade and the men with guns who inhabit it. 

Murder is hard to comprehend, in real life. As a conflict resolver, you have to ask: Why not simply walk away?  But the men who murder, and it is usually men, have something else going on, rage or psychopathology or simple drunkenness.

The window into the life of people who live in lower socioeconomic stratum is another eye opener.  In my new practice among the blue collar folks of small New England towns, I see some of the problems you can see on screen here, but listening to the Avery family is a revelation. 

There is probably a clue here about  where our politics come from, about  how and from whom a Sarah Palin can find support.