Steven Avery and Brandan Dassey have an unlikely fan: A woman representing some of the people appealing their convictions in the Tom Monfils murder in Green Bay.
Citizen advocate Joan Treppa tells KMSP-TV in Minneapolis that she wrote a letter of encouragement to Avery's parents.
"Tell your son, Steven, that many of us are rooting for him, and Brendan, and in the name of justice. And please never give up hope," she said, adding "many of us believe all of these men are innocent because of similar tactics used by law enforcement as in your son, Steven's, case."
Another connection between the cases: John Bradley, who worked on the Monfils case, is a law partner of Avery attorney Dean Strang.
Monfils was found dead in 1992 in a pulp vat in a Green Bay mill, a weight attached to a cord around his neck. Six men were convicted of his murder; one was later freed.
"Making a Murderer" is believed to be the most-watched show produced by Netflix, which previously was best known for "Orange is the New Black." At The New York Times, Farhad Manjoo writes that Netflix might become as successful in video circles as Amazon has become in retailing.
"Here's a question for you," he asks a hypothetical head of a giant media company. "How worried are you about Netflix? And more to the point: Are you worried enough?"
FROM EARLIER
"SHOCKING NEW DETAILS" about the killing of Teresa Halbach are promised in the People magazine issue that will be on newsstands Friday.
The top detail, from a "source," seems to be that the slain photographer planned to quit her job at Auto Trader magazine, but her boss "begged her to go" take one last photo at a business run by the man who would later be convicted of killing her. The brutal murder and subsequent prosecutions of two people form the basis for the addictive Netflix series, "Making a Murderer."
Was she so afraid of Steven Avery that she'd rather leave a gig that paid the bills than risk another trip to the Avery family's salvage yard? Nothing so lurid.
Turns out that her photo business was picking up, and she needed to leave Auto Trader to devote more time to her growing roster of clients. Oh.
The almost-always-thoughtful Vox scores again with a piece that says the the documentary is really about a lack of accountability in America's local justice system. Author German Lopez raises multiple issues, from the fact that low-income defendants like Brendan Dassey often end up with assigned attorneys who are unwilling or incapable of defending them to the observation that prosecutors (who win re-election at a rate of 95 percent) and judges (who in some states only have to stand for election every 10 years) have limited accountability to the people they serve.
"Even the state watchdog group for local police agencies concluded that there had been no wrongdoing for Avery's prior false conviction," Lopez writes. "A man was wrongly sentenced to 18 years in prison, and the official conclusion was that everything was fine. Somehow, this isn't surprising. Time and again, I've seen similar cases around the country, in which people face wrongful convictions or smaller abuses at a truly endemic level."
So is the Cap Times/Madison.com piece that says the system is "'focused on confessions and convictions," rather than getting things right.
"The series has caused viewers to face an uncomfortable truth: some innocent people serve time in prison and have little chance of clearing their names," Mario Koran writes. "The National Registry of Exonerations … counts 1,728 wrongful convictions nationwide since 1989, 43 in Wisconsin. And those are just the people who were able to prove their innocence, a task made incredibly difficult after conviction.
"Outside of whether Avery and Dassey are actually guilty, the documentary reveals a tunnel vision approach by investigators, coerced confessions and a justice system that appears to prioritize securing confessions and convictions ahead of seeking the truth."
LOCAL PERSPECTIVE
For more perspective, my colleagues Joel Christopher and Terry Lipshetz talk on a USA TODAY podcast about how the views of the people who were present for the trial differ widely from those of folks who've seen it only through the eyes of the people who produced the documentary. Christopher, now vice president of news for USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin, led the coverage of the Avery case for the Gannett-owned newspapers throughout Wisconsin.
"The facts of Teresa's murder, if they haven't already been revealed, might never be," he says. "The truth is that the case is far more complex than the black-and-white versions presented in 2007 by prosecutors in a courtroom in Chilton, Wis., and today by filmmakers in a Netflix documentary."
You can read a summary and listen to the full podcast here.
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Timeline: History of the Steven Avery case
Related: "Makng a Murderer" coverage, archived stories and more
'AMAZING' GRACE
HLN's Nancy Grace show plans a special on the Halbach murder and the Avery prosecution tonight at 8 Central Time.
Much of today's media coverage focuses on an interview of ex-Avery fiancee Jodi Stachowski last night on Grace's show. If you can get past the host shouting down guests — Tom Kertscher of the Journal Sentinel got the dump button early after he didn't agree with one of the host's theories — Stachowski, who was shown in the documentary cycling in and out of jail because of battles with alcohol, alleges:
You can watch an interview with Stachowski here.
►Avery claimed "all b------ owed him" because he was wrongly imprisoned for 18 years for the rape of a woman. It turned out she had been brutally attacked by another man.
►Stachowski allowed Avery to manipulate her because she was afraid of him physically. She says Avery choked her, dragged her out the door of his home, and threatened to kill her by dropping a hair dryer into a bathtub while she bathed. She said Avery also threatened to kill her family and one of her friends.
►Stachowski told the "Making a Murderer" producers that statements she made on camera were "all lies" and asked them to remove her from the documentary.
(Award for slobbery-est headline re: Grace's show goes to TMZ for "STEVEN AVERY'S EX-GF HE'S NOT INNOCENT ... He's a Monster!")
HAIR, TODAY
Not satisfied with just a discussion of the clothing of some of the attorneys involved in the case, the Tumblr-verse has added a thread focusing on hairstyles. Comedian Giulia Rozzi warrants credit. Or blame.
Now that Nancy Grace has weighed in, Dr. Phil McGraw will launch a two-parter on Friday. Part 1 sounds like it'll cover ground many others have plowed — example: "what evidence was left out of the documentary" — but part 2 has potential. It will include interviews with former Manitowoc County Sheriff Ken Petersen, and one of the officers who arrested Avery, current Sheriff Robert Hermann.
KEEP TRACK: Get our updates on what "Marking a Murderer" missed
"I think he would kill again," Petersen says of Avery, according to McGraw's website. "Prison is a good place for him. He can't hurt anybody and no one can hurt him."
dschneid@greenbaypressgtazette.com and follow him on Twitter@PGDougSchneider