re: New Netflix docu-series "Making a Murderer" (Spoilers)

There were people saying how smart they thought Katz was?

That dude seemed like a bumbling arrogant fool. frick that guy.

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Or what about the convenient Avery DNA on the car...with no fingerprints ANYWHERE?

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The fact that her DNA wasn't ANYWHERE in a 7 day search is fricking ridiculous.

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I love them too...BUT: they don't seem to have spent any time with jury on something so essential as educating them on the science of coerced confessions. Especially 10 years ago, the average American juror probably wouldn't have even been aware that such a thing was real.

That was a huge error of omission and could have been the difference (to both cases.)

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They COULDN'T bring up Brendan's confession in Steve Avery's trial because it was never introduced by the prosecution.

But they were handcuffed and screwed because Kratz absolutely tainted the jury pool with his dramatic reading of that "confession" during a live press conference. Strang and Buting mentioned in the doc that they knew that entire jury had that "confession" narrative in their minds but there was nothing they could do about it during trial because Kratz knew they would shred it so Kratz didn't use it. Hence, why the judge ended up dismissing the added charges the state brought because of that "confession".

Now, in Brendan's trial the "confession" was used, but since we only got one episode on his trial, I'm sure we didn't see all of his defense but his lawyers - not Strang and Buting - did try and argue that Brendan's "confession" was garbage and even put Brendan on the stand to testify to such. But back then, I don't know that there were a lot of expert witnesses on the subject of coerced confessions and even if there were, I doubt his public defenders could have afforded to employ them.

And to everyone praising Dean Strang and Jerome Buting - God, yes!!! They are my two new TV crushes.

And as far as "The Staircase" goes - trying to do this without spoiling - I wasn't advocating for the subject of that docuseries (far from it), I was just recommending it based on the long form format and the super inside view you got to see. I loved the lead defense attorney in that one too. I didn't walk away from that one with the same feeling I did from "Making a Murderer" but it was still a fascinating watch.

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Avery had purchased handcuffs and leg irons like the ones Brendan Dassey described holding Halbach just three weeks before.

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Just for the record, these were the cuffs found in Brandon's house:



A similar set was found at Steven's:



Both sets were novelty items purchased from Intimate Treasures and have quick release buttons.

The system needs to fix a few things, but they probably won't. The system will just gloat and shout we got the guy.

- Blood stored in evidence, heck anywhere should be required to have EDTA or whatever in it so it can be tested and identified as stored blood.

- Judges can't host an appeal trial if they served at the original trial.

- Judges have to be checked by some group to be held accountable, maybe they are already, but idk by who.

- Police have to cease and desist from the tired old everyone in the dept is beyond reproach and no matter what he is a cop, we all are cops, we never do anything wrong mentally. 99% of cops are probably cool, why are they sticking up for these idiots and bad eggs. It is well within the realm of reality that a cop could potentially commit a crime.

Side note, Houston news reported that the jail has become a housing unit they plan to release 1,800 people to get the numbers down so they can keep in murders, rapists, etc.
LINK

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But they were handcuffed and screwed because Kratz absolutely tainted the jury pool with his dramatic reading of that "confession" during a live press conference

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Not once but TWICE. That guy was a slimeball on all levels.

Binging episodes 8-10 tonight. Can't wait. This is an amazing documentary. Everything is very biased so I try to take it all with a grain of salt.. But even so, only 7 episodes in I already feel like there's no way this guy should go to jail from this trial. Way too many questions and holes in the states story. Way too much frickery, be it intentional or a series of mess ups.

Eta

Why was this trial not moved away from manitowac? High profile people usually have their trials elsewhere to prevent bias.

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Why was this trial not moved away from manitowac?

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it was moved to the next county over

The defense atty said that everyone in the state knew about the trial, there was really nowhere they could have gone to have gotten a "fair" trial. But they knew the local people knew about the previous wrongful conviction so they were hoping that would help

in a federal trial yes, but not in a state