After three years, Making a Murderer will finally return this fall. On October 19, Netflix will release Making a Murderer Part 2, which will bring viewers back to Manitowoc County, Wisconsin to explore the post-conviction process for both Steven Avery and his nephew and co-defendant, Brendan Dassey. Both maintain their innocence in the rape and murder of Teresa Halbach.
Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos, who together won three Emmy awards for their work on Making a Murderer, will return to the Midwest to continue their story as writers, directors, and executive producers. Like the first installment, Part 2 will comprise 10 episodes, which will examine Avery and Dasseys fight for justice and explore the post-conviction process, as well as the emotional toll all of this has taken on everyone involved. It will also introduce viewers to new faces, including Kathleen Zellner, Averys post-conviction lawyer, who has righted more wrongful convictions than any private attorney in America. Dasseys post-conviction lawyers, Laura Nirider and Steven Drizin, work with Northwestern Universitys Center on Wrongful Convictions of Youth, and will continue to make the case that Dasseys confession, taken when their client was in high school, was involuntary.
Avery was convicted of the rape and attempted murder of Penny Beerntsen in 1985. Eighteen years later, he was exonerated—but in 2007, Avery was convicted once more for the murder of Teresa Halbach. Avery maintains his innocence. Dassey initially confessed to helping Avery murder Halbach and dispose of her corpse, as well as to raping her. He was tried and sentenced as an adult—and found guilty of first-degree intentional homicide, rape, and mutilation of a corpse. But Dasseys public defenders maintained that his confession was coerced.
Last year, a federal appeals court in Chicago handed down a startling decision to uphold the original ruling in Dasseys case, after a lower court overturned it that summer. Now, per Netflixs press release, his fight could continue all the way to the 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,” Ricciardi and Demos said in a statement. “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.”
Get Vanity Fairs HWD NewsletterSign up for essential industry and award news from Hollywood.Laura BradleyLaura Bradley is a Hollywood writer for VanityFair.com.
[contf] [contfnew] 
Vanity Fair
[contfnewc] [contfnewc]
