They gained worldwide fame as the two defense attorneys in the wildly popular Netflix series "Making A Murderer." Dean Strang and Jerry Buting joined Jim to talk about the case of convicted murderer Steven Avery.
Much of the internet was collectively outraged by the Steven Avery case. After he wrongfully served 18 years in prison for a rape he did not commit, Avery was charged for the murder of another young woman two years later. The documentary follows him and his family throughout the case, detailing claims of police bias against the family.
Many people believe Steven Avery is innocent, leading to theories about other potential murderers. "I think whoever killed this young woman understood full well, that suspicion would fall immediately on Steven Avery, and took advantage of that," Strang said. "And indeed the police did focus immediately and essentially exclusively on Steven Avery.”
“The problem was… we were not allowed to point the finger at anybody else as a suspect," said Buting. “It opened the door for the state to make that argument that they must be saying that the police are the ones that killed her and burned her because who else. And that was never our pre-trial theory that we wanted to advance.”
Strang said they had identified eight other people, in total, who could have potentially committed the murder. However, due to Wisconsin law, they were unable to introduce any of them before the jury. The pair said that it would be unfair to name these people now, outside of a courtroom. However, according to Buting, public court documents detail the list of names.
"The great benefit [of the series] … for Steven Avery and Brendan Dassy is it's harnessed a hundred thousand motivated minds who are thinking about technological advances, tests that might be done now," said Strang. They are hopeful that such discoveries could lead to Avery's exoneration, just as advancements in the science of DNA testing led to his release from wrongful imprisonment before.
Avery’s new lawyer has also suggested that there is more evidence, which was never presented to the jury, that could clear her client’s name. She’s indicated there are cell phone records that would demonstrate the victim made a phone call while driving away from the Avery property—just one of several pieces of information that was not previously brought before a jury.
For Buting, the moral of this story is that "people need to wake up and see what happens in their court houses, and they need to take ownership of them.” Both attorneys are hopeful that the both the Netflix series and their tour will get people talking about the issues at play so that they can get involved and make changes to their justice systems. "The things that are raised in this documentary, the things that outrage people, questions we've gotten, are things that have outraged Dean and me for years," said Buting.
Strang remains optimistic. "You either keeping trying, or you quit,” he said. “The thirst for justice is universal,” he added. "With grassroots efforts ... it's really possible to make change in the long term."
You can watch Jim moderate the discussion, A Conversation On Justice, with Strang and Buting here.
