REUTERS/Manitowoc County Sheriff's Department
A lawyer for Steven Avery, whose conviction in a 2007 murder trial was the subject of the Netflix documentary "Making a Murderer" says she can prove Avery's innocence. Attorney Kathleen Zellner says the evidence that convicted Avery of murdering photographer Teresa Halbach was staged. Zellner's biggest discovery was that Halbach's car had been seized by police before it appeared on Avery's property. Avery's previous lawyers had contended that the blood found in the vehicle had also been planted by police. Zellner is requesting new forensic tests to determine whether the blood samples had been preserved in vials before they appeared in the car.
Earlier this month, Avery's nephew Brendan Dassey's conviction in the murder case was overturned. Zellner hopes for a similar verdit for Avery. "No guilty person would ever allow such extensive testing to be done," Zellner told Newsweek. "The fact that Mr. Avery has agreed to all this testing is further proof he’s actually innocent of these crimes."