The highly-anticipated second season of its true-crime doc “Making a Murderer” will premiere Oct. 19, Netflix announced Tuesday.
Per Netflix, the second season will see filmmakers Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos return to Wisconsin and follow the post-conviction process for Steve Avery and his co-defendant and nephew, Brendan Dassey. Earlier this month, Avery was denied a new trial for the second time by Sheboygan County Circuit Court judge Angela Sutkiewicz.
“Part 2” will introduce Kathleen Zellner, Avery’s hard-charging post-conviction lawyer, in her fight to prove that Avery was wrongly convicted and to win his freedom. Ricciardi and Demos follow Zellner, who has righted more wrongful convictions than any private attorney in America, as she works the case and uncovers unexpected evidence about what may have happened to Teresa Halbach and about how and why the jury convicted Steven of her murder.
Zellner previously told TheWrap regarding Avery’s denied attempt for a new trial: “We were disappointed with the lower court’s opinion because it was riddled with factual errors, ignored most of the legal arguments and misapplied the law,” she said. “In the greater scheme of things the higher courts will make the final decision on whether Mr. Avery will be given a new trial. This decision was a speed bump and we have many levels of courts to appeal to before this is over. It is good to be on the way to those courts.”
Ricciardi and Demos also follow Dassey’s post-conviction lawyers, Laura Nirider and Steven Drizin with Northwestern University’s Center on Wrongful Convictions of Youth, as they fight in federal court to prove their client’s confession was involuntary, a fight that could take Brendan’s case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
“Steven and Brendan, their families and their legal and investigative teams have once again graciously granted us access, giving us a window into the complex web of American criminal justice,” said Ricciardi and Demos. “Building on ‘Part 1,’ which documented the experience of the accused, in ‘Part 2,’ we have chronicled the experience of the convicted and imprisoned, two men each serving life sentences for crimes they maintain they did not commit. We are thrilled to be able to share this new phase of the journey with viewers.”
“Making a Murderer Part 2” is a Synthesis Films Production. Ricciardi and Demos serve as executive producers, writers and directors.