Making A Murderer sequel Convicting A Murderer to tell the prosecution's side of the story
Along with Serial and The Jinx, 2015's Making A Murderer was a key event in the ongoing mainstreaming of true crime, and one of the first Netflix series to really dominate the global water-cooler conversation. Netflix has long promised a second season of the show from filmmakers Moira Demos and Laura Ricciardi, first announcing their involvement in new episodes back in the summer of 2016. This, well…this is not that.
/Film is among the outlets reporting that a spinoff series to Making A Murderer is in the works called Convicting A Murderer, which will re-tell the story from the perspective of the law enforcement who investigated Steven Avery and the attorneys who prosecuted (and defended) him, with “unprecedented access to District Attorney Ken Kratz, Lead Investigator Tom Fassbender, and other major players in State v. Avery.” This comes after criticism that Demos and Ricciardi left out key pieces of evidence in order to paint a picture more sympathetic towards Avery, charges to which Ricciardi responded in 2016, “It would have been impossible for us to include every piece of evidence submitted to the court … We were not putting on a trial, but a film.”
The series comes from Cleveland-based true-crime filmmaker Shawn Rech, whose most recent project is a documentary on Richard Wershe, Jr., the Detroit FBI informant-turned-cocaine dealer known as “White Boy Rick.” In a statement, Rech says:
We fight for the truth. We’ll present all of the evidence in the Avery case from the perspective of both the prosecution and the defense and see if viewers feel the same way they did two years ago following the first season of Making A Murderer.
It’s important to note here that Convicting A Murderer is being made without the involvement of either the original filmmakers or Netflix—a Cleveland.com article on the project notes that it’s being privately financed, “mostly by Clevelanders”—and currently does not have a network lined up. But hey, being opportunistic isn’t a crime, right?