The Unseen Consequences of True Crime Stardom
When defence attorney Dean Strang began working on Steven Avery's murder case two decades ago, the landscape of entertainment was fundamentally different. Streaming services and binge-watching culture hadn't yet revolutionised how audiences consumed content. Documentaries arrived through postal services in distinctive red and white envelopes, representing a slower, more deliberate form of media consumption that seems almost quaint by today's standards.
From Obscure Trial to Global Phenomenon
Strang could never have anticipated becoming an international Netflix celebrity through Making a Murderer, the groundbreaking true crime series that transformed Avery from a Wisconsin defendant into one of the world's most recognised convicted criminals. The ten-part documentary, which premiered in December 2015, meticulously examined Avery's complex legal journey – from his wrongful 1985 sexual assault conviction and subsequent DNA exoneration in 2003, to his 2007 conviction for photographer Teresa Halbach's 2005 murder alongside his nephew Brendan Dassey.
The series sparked unprecedented public engagement, dominating social media conversations, newspaper front pages, and workplace discussions for weeks. Its examination of evidence handling, potential police misconduct, and witness testimony inconsistencies left millions questioning the validity of Avery's second conviction – doubts that persist among many viewers today.
Personal Impact on Legal Professionals
Dean Strang recalls his initial scepticism when filmmakers Moira Demos and Laura Ricciardi revealed their plans for a ten-part series. "I was gobsmacked," he remembers. "I thought – what an idiotic idea. Who thinks people are going to watch ten hours of some obscure murder trial from an obscure corner of an obscure state?"
His predictions proved spectacularly wrong. Nineteen million viewers immersed themselves in the documentary, transforming Strang from a Wisconsin lawyer into an unlikely cultural figure. The attention brought hundreds of supportive emails, though approximately one percent contained threatening messages or inappropriate content. "I got a handful of pictures from women showing me their breasts or other ridiculous stuff," Strang acknowledges, highlighting the surreal nature of his newfound fame.
The Victim's Family Perspective
While Strang experienced the documentary's impact as "unnerving" during public encounters, this discomfort pales against the profound distress experienced by Teresa Halbach's family. As viewers formed fan clubs for Avery's parents and dissected Strang's fashion sense (dubbed "Strangcore"), the Halbach family watched their personal tragedy become global entertainment.
Prior to the documentary's release, the family issued a statement expressing their sadness "that individuals and corporations continue to create entertainment and to seek profit from our loss." Friends remembered Teresa as having "a smile that would light up a room" and described her as "always a happy-go-lucky, typical Midwestern girl," attempting to recentre the narrative on the vibrant young woman whose life was tragically cut short.
Strang acknowledges the family's impossible position: "They lost a 25-year-old daughter, sister, niece and they got thrust into this. They didn't ask for a movie to be made. They didn't ask for the trial. From the moment they lost Teresa, there will always be a hole in their lives."
True Crime's Ethical Responsibilities
The phenomenal success of Making a Murderer opened floodgates for true crime content, raising crucial questions about ethical storytelling in this increasingly popular genre. Writer and women's safety campaigner Jamie Klingler argues these documentaries serve dual purposes: they can oversimplify complex realities while simultaneously holding power structures accountable.
"They can be hugely beneficial," Klingler notes. "Cold cases can be solved, and they can help get justice for women that have been buried for 50 years. The threat of having somebody else go through and mark your homework can make police actually spend a lot more time on an investigation."
Cindy Kanusher, executive director of legal non-profit the PACE Women's Justice Centre, emphasises the importance of responsible representation, particularly given that nearly three women are killed by intimate partners daily in the United States. "When true crime programmes come out, when they are done right, they give people the opportunity to see the point of view of survivors and victims," she explains.
Lasting Legal and Cultural Questions
A decade after the documentary's release, Steven Avery remains incarcerated at Wisconsin's medium-security Fox Lake prison, while Brendan Dassey serves his sentence at Oshkosh Correctional Institution. Despite numerous appeals and a 2018 follow-up series documenting legal efforts to prove Avery's innocence, both convictions stand.
Strang reflects on the broader implications: "The point is, how reliable is evidence gathering? How reliable are the police, the lawyers on both sides of the system, the jury system? How should we think about the overall trustworthiness of the justice system?"
While acknowledging Making a Murderer as "a pop cultural phenomenon," Strang expresses regret that "there is not a more visible permanent impact in improving the enforcement system and making us a better, more humane society." The documentary's legacy continues to provoke essential conversations about justice, entertainment ethics, and the human cost of true crime storytelling.
