Dozens of people are expected to take part in protests in Manitowoc County, Wisconsin over the convictions of Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey whose cases were featured in the Netflix series Making a Murderer.
Several protests were planned for Friday morning through the Steven Avery Project Facebook page.
Manitowoc Police say they are prepared for the rally.
“We could obviously get help from the sheriff’s department, if we needed it,” Capt. Larry Zimney, told WISH-TV.
“State Patrol will have people in the area that we could draw from if we needed to. Also Brown County has offered people if we need them. And of course, our local mutual aid with Two Rivers or Kiel or other local law enforcement agencies that would be willing to help.”
READ MORE: Steven Avery’s new lawyer pokes holes in prosecution’s case on Twitter
Steven Avery was convicted in 1985 for the rape of a jogger on a beach near her home in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. But his conviction was eventually overturned and he was freed from prison after 18 years based on newly discovered DNA evidence.
Following his release in 2003 Avery filed a US$36-million lawsuit against Manitowoc County for wrongful conviction and imprisonment.
READ MORE: Making a Murdererfilmmakers say juror disagreed with final verdict
Two years later, he was arrested along with his nephew Brendan Dassey in connection with the death of Teresa Halbach, a photographer whose charred remains were found near Avery’s trailer.
The 10-part documentary series raises questions about whether Avery and Dassey were wrongly convicted, and has led to a firestorm of controversy, prompting armchair sleuths from around the world to flood social media and online message boards with theories on the case.
Avery’s new lawyer Kathleen Zellner recently took to Twitter to poke holes in the prosecution’s case against her client.
In a statement Zellner said her firm is “looking forward to adding Mr. Avery to its long list of wrongful conviction exonerations.”
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