“Making a Murderer” subject Steven Avery‘s new lawyer Kathleen Zellner has filed a motion seeking further scientific testing of evidence from the 2005 murder of Teresa Halbach. Zellner argued that this level of testing wasn’t available during the 2007 trial.
“The most reassuring thing is that we are going to get to the bottom of who killed Teresa Halbach,” Zellner told reporters outside Manitowoc County courthouse on Friday. “And we firmly believe that we will establish it was not Steven Avery.”
Zellner wants to date blood and DNA found at the scene to verify whether it was planted or not. Although she told reporters the results will indicate that Avery is in fact not guilty, she declined to point out who might be responsible. In the motion, Zellner says “Mr. Avery has already completed a series of tests that will conclusively establish his innocence” and that she will be revealing her theory on the presumed killer once she has access to the test results.
Zellner’s motion also theorizes how Avery was framed by Manitowoc County. She points out that documents state Halbach’s car was seized on Nov. 3, 2005, which is actually two days before it was found on Nov. 5.
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“If the unidentified fingerprints on the victim’s vehicle match either Officer [Andrew] Colborn or Officer [James] Lenk, it would be significant evidence of their involvement in moving the victim’s vehicle onto the Avery property,” states Zellner’s motion, obtained by Newsweek.
“Ms. Halbach’s vehicle was moved from the Fred Radandt Sons, Inc. quarry to the Avery property using the conveyor road that led onto the Avery property from the quarry,” the motion states. “Mr. Avery contends that the blood evidence was planted in Ms. Halbach’s car, by law enforcement, prior to the discovery of the vehicle on the Avery property on November 5, 2005.”
Zellner’s motion further details the inconsistencies within the case and trial, including people’s access the property after it was closed to the public. She also points out distinctions between the main timeline and testimonies.
In 2007, Avery and his nephew Brendan Dassey were convicted of murdering Halbach, a photographer. Netflix premiered “Making a Murderer,” which chronicled Avery and Dassey’s cases, in December. A federal magistrate judge overturned Dassey’s conviction earlier this month, but Avery is still behind bars for life without parole.
Netflix’s “Making a Murderer” will be returning with more episodes chronicling the aftermath of the convictions and the current state of both defendants, but has yet to set a release date for Season 2.
