What you need to know about Making a Murderer Season 2

Steven Avery, right, with his parents Allan and Dolores in Making a Murderer: Part 2. Photo / Netflix

'The truth always comes out sooner or later."

Those are the final words we hear from Steven Avery in the first season of Making a Murderer, the gripping Netflix docuseries that examined the Wisconsin native's 2007 murder conviction and the bizarre events that preceded it. The series has now returned, nearly three years after it made the streaming giant a major player on the true-crime circuit. Ten new episodes follow Avery's efforts to get his conviction overturned.

Film-makers Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos spent a decade filming the first instalment, which received largely favourable reviews. But some critics felt the docuseries omitted crucial details about the case, which was closely watched in Avery's hometown in Manitowoc County. Here's what you need to know about Making a Murderer - and what happened since the show brought Avery to national prominence.

The case

In November 2005, Avery was charged with the grisly murder of a young photographer named Teresa Halbach. Avery had been released from prison two years earlier after serving 18 years for a violent sexual assault that DNA evidence later proved he did not commit.

At the time of his 2005 arrest, Avery had launched a US$36 million lawsuit against Manitowoc County for his wrongful conviction. That became a linchpin for Avery's defence team, who argued that police had planted evidence to frame him for Halbach's killing. On March 18, 2007, a jury found Avery guilty of first-degree intentional homicide and of being a felon in possession of a firearm. In June that year, he was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole.

But Avery wasn't the only person charged in Halbach's death. In March 2006, his nephew Brendan Dassey, 16, was arrested after implicating himself during a controversial police interrogation that became a focal point of the first season. Dassey was charged with being a party to first-degree intentional homicide, mutilating a corpse and second-degree sexual assault; in April 2007, he was convicted of all three and handed life in prison, with the earliest possibility for parole set for 2048.

The documentary's impact

Making a Murderer, which was released on the heels of the Serial podcast and HBO's The Jinx, became a cultural phenomenon. Avery and Dassey gained supporters who believed in their innocence. In 2016, USA Today Network-Wisconsin obtained more than 1900 pages of emails from jail officials and it was revealed Avery and Dassey had received an unidentified number of wire transfers ranging from US$10 to US$50 from viewers.

But others felt the documentary failed to present important details about the case and appeared to support the view that Avery was innocent. In 2016, Ricciardi said the intention was not to take sides or argue evidence.

She also hit back at criticism that the documentary was biased in Avery's favour. "Some of our most vocal critics are people who chose not to participate in the series," she told Deadline. "So it's a little difficult now to hear them complaining about objectivity or bias ..."

The New York Times reports that Making a Murderer: Part 2's credits include a screen displaying the names of people who declined interviews with the film-makers, or didn't respond to their requests.

One especially vocal critic is Michael Griesbach, a veteran Wisconsin prosecutor who helped Avery get exonerated in 2003, and examined his wrongful conviction and subsequent murder trial in the 2014 book The Innocent Killer. After the documentary, Griesbach believed Avery was guilty - the basis of his 2016 book Indefensible: The Missing Truth about Steven Avery, Teresa Halbach and Making a Murderer.

Post-conviction appeals

Part 2 revolves heavily around ongoing efforts to overturn the convictions. The series introduces a new player: Avery's defence attorney, Kathleen Zellner, who specialises in wrongful convictions.

Since taking over Avery's appeals in 2016, Zellner has filed motions aimed at getting his conviction overturned.

Dassey's legal team has long argued his confession was coerced. A federal magistrate judge agreed in August 2016, ordering his release and prompting Wisconsin officials to appeal. A panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit agreed in a two-one decision that Dassey's confession had been coerced. But the full appeals court overturned that in December, ruling four-three to uphold the conviction.

In June, the Supreme Court declined to hear Dassey's case.