About 20 years ago I visited my brother and father in Texas. My brother had recently moved there to go to the Art Insititue. While I was there he showed me a documentary called Paradise Lost about 3 teenage boys who were convicted in West Memphis Arkansas for the murder of 3 little boys. Once I finished watching that, I knew they didn't do it. A few years later I saw Paradise Lost 2. Still convinced they hadn't done it, but now certain the Step-Father of one of the boys had done it. In 2011 Paradise Lost 3 came out and it was the best conclusion to the trilogy as it ended with the 3 innocent men being released from prison. However after watching that I was certain it wasn't the Step-Father who did it, but one of the Fathers. This is the thing with Documentries, you see what they want you to see.

Cut to last weekend. Everyone has been going crazy for the last few weeks about this 10 episode documentary series on Netflix called Making a Murderer. I decided I'd watch a few episode Sunday afternoon, then do some other things. Cut to 2:00AM and I'm finishing up the last episode. If you haven't watched it, I recommend it, it's a very good watch. Go do it now, I'll wait...

...Did you watch it? Yes? Sweet, skip ahead to the next paragraph. If not, fine, here's what it's about. In 1985 a man named Steven Avery was convicted of a brutal rape in Manitowoc County in Wisconson. He was 23 at the time. On September 11th 2003 he was released from prison due to new DNA evidence that proved he had nothing to do with it. He ended up suing Manitowoc County for $35,000,000 for 13 years of wrongful imprisonment. In 2007 a photographer for Auto Trader showed up to his house to take a photo of a car he was selling. Her remains were found about a week later in a burn pit behind his house about a week later. He was charged and convicted of her murder and now is spending life in prison.

So, now that we're all up to speed, let's discuss the documentary. It shows the investigation and the trial of the murder. It has a very obvious narrative of "he didn't do it". There are plenty of things that are very convincing of this fact. Since the documentary came out a lot of people have come forward that know him and said, "he is not a good person, we absolutely believe he did it", including his ex-fiancé and a many women that say he had assaulted them.

Here's my take away from the whole thing. Do I think he did it after watching the trial footage? No. The prosecutors did a very poor job of creating a reasonable doubt that he had actually committed the crime. This was proven by the fact that the jury said he was guilty of the murder, but not disposing of her body. Now do I believe he didn't do it? That is also a no. The documentary was not convincing enough to make me believe he is totally innocent. But that doesn't really matter. What matters is that there just wasn't enough evidence to create resonate doubt.

As for his nephew, that is an entirely different story. If you are reading this and haven't watched it, here's the quick back story on that. Steven Avery's nephew was 16 at the time. The police interviewed him and got him to confess to helping his uncle with the murder and disposal of this woman's body. However, he has an IQ of 70 and was completely coerced by the police. You can see it in the interigation videos they show in the documentary. I bring up the fact that his IQ is 70 for a very specific reason, Forrest Gump's IQ was 75. I also mention this because the same thing happened in the case featured in Pardise Lost. On of the 3 teenagers convicted also had an IQ of 70 and was coerced by police into confessing. I am 100% convinced this kid (now young man) had nothing to do with it. He is the one that the most outrage should be focused on.

Since the doc came out there have been petitions to try and get Steven Avery released, including on Change.gov trying to get the President to pardon him, which I Guess people don't realize the President can only pardon Federal criminals. But really, I don't think most people actually realize what the President can and can't do. There has also been one other thing that I have seen a lot of, and that's the last thing I want to talk about.

One of the key pieces of evidence (no pun intended) that is found is the key to the woman's car is found in Steven Avery's bedroom. For 7 days it was missed by every investigator that went in there. THen 2 cops from Manitowoc County, the County that had a $35,000,000 lawsuit against them, came in and found the key sitting next to a book case and a pair of shoes, just out in plain site. Yes this is incredibly fishy and I do believe they planted it. A popular meme has popped up as a result of this:

Here is my problem with this. Just because the girl was murdered doesn't mean she still doesn't have a family. They are seen in the documentary but declined participating in it. Can you even begin to imaging how they must be feeling right now? Going on social media and seeing people joke about the investigation of the brutal murder and dismemberment of their daughter/sister/niece? This is the biggest problem with these Documentries about wrongfully accused murderers. Everyone cares so much about the ones that are in prison who shouldn't be, which they should, that they totally forget that there is still a victim and a victims family out there. People were outraged about the West Memphis 3 when Paradise Lost came out. However, now that they're released, no one seems to talk about the fact that the actual killer has yet to be found. So the families still don't have the closure and probably never will. As far as the family in this case are concerned, they believe they have their closure, because they think both Steven Avery and his nephew did it. However now they are having to relive everything, and knowing the Internet, are probably being harassed by people for thinking this way. Some of them were recently interviewed by People Magazine and have said they are disgusted by all this, and with good reason. Trying to get on with your lives after something so tragic I'm sure is almost impossible. But after these people had finally done so, they now have to have it all brought back.

So where does that leave us. There are 2 men in prison who shouldn't be. One appears to be 100% innocent, the other, while possibly not being 100% innocent, wasn't proven to be 100% guilty either. We have a family that has had the worst moment of their life brought back to the surface and turned into national news destroying any closure they may have once felt. I don't think this will end well for all parties involved. How do I see it?

Did he do it? I don't know.

Did his nephew do it? No.

Did the police try to frame him? Yes.

Did the police do it in order to frame him? God no, if they were that desperate they'd have just had him killed.

Is there still a grieving family out there? Yes.

Will this case ever actually be solved? Probably not.

Are minorities dumbfounded by the fact that a redneck in Wisconson get's wrongfully accused and convicted of a crime he possibly didn't commit and the whole country goes into an outrage about it while that happenes on a daily basis to black and Latinos? Most likely, and with good reason.

This is just a terrible situation all around and it won't have a happy ending. Except for the 24/7 news outlets. They of course are loving every second of it.