Peter Jackson delivers his Making a Murderer verdict

Sir Peter Jackson and Making A Murderer's Steven Avery, now aged 53. Photo (right) / AP

Sir Peter Jackson says he spent his Christmas holidays binge-watching the Netflix documentary series Making a Murderer - and he didn't like what he saw.

The 10-part series, which follows the murder trial of Steven Avery and his nephew Brendan Dassey, debuted on December 18 on the streaming service. Many spent their holidays watching the addictive true-crime show.

Jackson, who co-produced the 2012 movie West of Memphis , about three teenagers wrongly convicted of three murders in 1993, took to Facebook overnight to say he believes Dassey is innocent.

"It's only by watching the 10 hours of riveting documentary that you will really understand how faulty the US justice system currently is, and how badly it needs fixing," wrote Jackson.

Jackson said the similarities between Avery's case and that of the West Memphis trio were eerie. He believes police coerced Dassey, who was aged only 16 at the time, into making a false confession.

"Before our West Memphis 3 experience, I found the concept of 'false confessions' a little hard to believe. Most confessions are obviously not false - and why on earth would anybody implicate themselves in a murder they had nothing to do with?" Jackson said.

"But look at what happens to Brendan Dassey in Making a Murderer - it's a textbook example of how easily a fragile justice system can derail.

"Unfortunately there are too many cases where police, under pressure to solve a case, set out to break a vulnerable young suspect - cleverly feeding them the details they want to hear.

"They manipulate an innocent person into giving a false confession."

Jackson pointed readers to a website that includes details on how fans of the show could help Dassey.

Jackson's full statement

- nzherald.co.nz