Making a Murderer's producers have responded to allegations that the documentary series left out key details about its subject Steven Avery.
Speaking to reporters at the TCA Press Tour yesterday (January 17), director and executive producer Moira Demos said: "We are documentary filmmakers, we are not prosecutors, we're not defence attorneys, we did not set out to convict or exonerate anyone."
While it would have been impossible for the series to include every piece of evidence, Demos said the team took their cues from "the prosecution, and what they thought was the most compelling evidence", adding: "That's what we included.
"Of course we left out evidence. We're not putting on a trial by film. The question is whether what was omitted is significant, and the answer is no."
One reporter then asked specifically about allegations of abuse made against Avery by his ex-fiancée Jodi Stachowski, of which the director and EP Laura Ricciardi denied knowledge.
Ricciardi explained that she and her fellow filmmakers included only what evidence they could verify from multiple sources, and "[the allegations] you're referencing now never came into that process".
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"I think what we're seeing now is history repeating itself," Ricciardi said. "It's now on a national scale - the media are demonising this man in order to prove his guilt...
"We showed Steven Avery, warts and all. We showed all of his priors and information to the extent that we could accurately fact-check it, and we had multiple sources for it.
"Just because someone is coming forward now with a narrative, their interpretation of something doesn't make it factual."
Challenged again by the same reporter, who specifically referenced a Huffington Post article detailing Stachowski's allegations, Ricciardi responded: "I guess what I would ask you is, how are [these allegations] relevant to this individual's right to a fair trial?"
Emma Dibdin is a freelance writer based in Los Angeles who writes about culture, mental health, and true crime. She loves owls, hates cilantro, and can find the queer subtext in literally anything.
