Final episode of 'Convicting a Murderer' discusses media ethics and memories of Teresa Halbach
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"Convicting a Murderer" caps off its 10-episode run with an episode highlighting negative effects of Netflix's "Making a Murderer" and discussion of documentary ethics.
"Convicting a Murderer" is a rebuttal to Netflix's "Making a Murderer," which since its premiere in 2015, has brought international attention to the 2005 Manitowoc-area homicide of 25-year-old Teresa Halbach and convictions of Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey.
The docuseries aims to prove that the Netflix series left out key pieces of evidence and facts that point to the two men as guilty.
On Oct. 31, 2005, Halbach went missing. A photographer for Auto Trader Magazine, Halbach's last assignment before her disappearance was to take photos of a vehicle at Avery's Auto Salvage, a family business near Two Rivers.
Days later, searchers located Halbach's vehicle on Avery's property, and Avery was arrested. He had been out of prison for just over two years, after serving 18 years for a 1985 sexual assault he did not commit. Avery was exonerated of that crime in 2003, after advances in DNA technology pointed to a different man as the assailant.
The first season of "Making a Murderer" focuses on what Avery's defense attorneys argued at trial: that Avery was framed by members of the Manitowoc County Sheriff's Office who were defendants in a $36 million lawsuit from Avery for his wrongful conviction.
"Convicting a Murderer" is streaming on conservative media platform DailyWire+. Its first three episodes premiered Sept. 8, while each subsequent episode was made available every Thursday.
In April, The Daily Wire announced it had obtained "Convicting a Murderer" and was making conservative political commentator Candace Owens the docuseries' host — but the series has been in the works for over six years. Director Shawn Rech did not previously say it would have any particular political affiliation.
Here are some takeaways from Episode 10: The Real Villain.
Teresa Halbach was a 25-year-old coming into her own
In all the discourse about Avery and Dassey and law enforcement corruption, Teresa Halbach has become less of a person to be remembered and more of a piece in the Steven Avery narrative, "Convicting a Murderer" points out.
Case enthusiasts who have been active in online communities like Reddit, where people share theories of the case, say it's not uncommon to come across theories that Halbach faked her death to help law enforcement frame Avery, or that her family may bear some of the guilty because some did not view their portrayals of emotion in footage from "Making a Murderer" as believable.
The best effort for justice moving forward is to remember who Halbach was, Owens says in Episode 10.
Family and friends remember Halbach as a kind, fun-loving individual. The Saturday before her murder, Halbach went out with friends to celebrate Halloween, dressed as a cowgirl.
She loved the Beatles.
Former WFRV reporter Angenette Levy recalls learning from Halbach's brother, who kept an audio recording of his sister singing that he would listen to at times for comfort after her death.
Halbach was shy in high school, but in adulthood had become more sure of herself and was working a job involving one of her passions, photography.
"It's not how she died, it's how she lived that we're going to remember her," Halbach's brother, Mike, said in old footage.
'Making a Murderer' filmmakers claimed no advocacy role, but interactions with Avery showed otherwise
Throughout all 10 episodes, "Convicting a Murderer" has pointed out that "Making a Murderer" did not present all the evidence of the case, and purposely left out certain things that did not fit the narrative that Avery was innocent and framed by a disgraced sheriff's office.
Episode 10 includes multiple clips from "Making a Murderer" press tours and interviews, in which filmmakers Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos say they came into the filmmaking process with an open mind about the truth, and did not approach it with intent to be advocates for Avery and Dassey.
But in audio of recorded jail phone calls between Ricciardi and Avery, the filmmaker made statements that seem to show otherwise.
In Ricciardi's first interview with Avery on Jan. 28, 2006, after Avery says he wants people to know he is innocent, Ricciardi says she believes him.
“I hope that what I’m doing with this film helps in some way and I really believe that it will, and that’s why I want to do it," Ricciardi says in the jail phone call.
Documentaries are not 'unfiltered reality.'
The final episode of "Convicting a Murderer" includes a lot of discussion about documentary ethics.
Documentary is an art form, and is not held to the same ethics standards as journalism organizations, interviewees say in Episode 10. It can run into a gray area for viewers, however, when filmmakers claim to be providing objective truth.
“The history of documentary is just shot through with different ways that people have argued about what is responsible," American University media professor Patricia Aufderheide says in the episode.
It's impossible to create a video project that is true, "unfiltered reality," Aufderheide says.
"Making a Murderer" included video clips that fit particular elements of the narrative, which at times were misleading, "Convicting a Murderer" says. For example, during discussion of Avery's 1985 wrongful conviction, "Making a Murderer" included courthouse clips from 2005 and 2006 of law enforcement officers who weren't at all involved in Avery's 1985 case. Another point in "Making a Murderer" included footage of law enforcement filming a closet while a voice discusses taking shoes in case there are any unsolved burglaries with foot impression evidence. This footage, Owens says, wasn't even from Avery's residence.
After "Making a Murderer" came out, retired Manitowoc County Sheriff's Detective Andrew Colborn filed a lawsuit against Netflix and “Making a Murderer” filmmakers Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos in April 2019, claiming that their editing together video clips from different portions of his testimony at Avery's trial was defamation. But in March, a federal judge ruled in favor of the filmmakers, that the edits kept the essence of the testimony, and there was no proof of malice, which is a required element in showing defamation.
Owens is very vocal of her frustrations with media in general in Episode 10, and blames Ricciardi and Demos, as well as Netflix, for hiding information they knew about Avery's history to better represent him as an innocent man in their story.
The final episode also include interviews with people who were active advocates for Avery's and Dassey's innocence before changing their minds after learning more information — including one source who was interviewed in an earlier episode, but during the filming process changed her mind and spoke to filmmakers again.
“I hold it against no one that they became enthralled with this story from watching ‘Making a Murderer’ because I always felt, even back then, that this is the craziest story, it has too many twists and turns, and I understand why people are so obsessed with it," Levy says in Episode 10. "But I think that you can’t just let one source color your thinking.”
Read the rest of our recaps of 'Convicting a Murderer':
Episode 9: 'Convicting a Murderer' Episode 9 claims Steven Avery manipulated Brendan Dassey
Episode 4: 'Convicting a Murderer' Episode 4 discusses inconsistent statements made by Steven Avery
Episodes 1-3: Takeaways from first 3 episodes of 'Convicting a Murderer,' the response to 'Making a Murderer'
Contact Kelli Arseneau at 920-213-3721 or karseneau@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @ArseneauKelli.
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This article originally appeared on Appleton Post-Crescent: Final episode of 'Convicting a Murderer' discusses media ethics and memories of Teresa Halbach
