Chasing Avery: Netflix series unlikely to affect wrongful-conviction proposal

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A Netflix documentary about a Wisconsin man who was exonerated from a rape charge only to be later convicted of killing a photographer probably won’t affect the progress of a proposal that would increase compensation for those wrongfully convicted, says one of the proposal’s sponsors.

Steven Avery made headlines in 2003 when he was released from prison after spending nearly two decades behind bars for a rape he hadn’t committed. Avery found himself back in court a mere two years later, this time charged with killing Teresa Halbach, a freelance photographer who had visited the Avery family salvage yard to take photos of cars on Halloween and was never seen alive again.

The 10-episode Netflix documentary — “Making a Murderer”  — debuted Dec. 18 and follows Avery’s murder trial.

State Sen. Fred Risser, D-Madison, noted that the current proposal to increase the compensation that goes to the wrongfully convicted was given two public hearings before the Avery documentary began airing. For that reason, said Risser, who is a sponsor of the legislation, the Netflix series is unlikely to have much of an effect on his and other lawmakers’ plans.

“From what I’ve seen of it, it’s a very important documentary,” he said. “But this legislation has been in the hopper for a long time and has been moving ahead regardless.”

Wisconsin currently offers the wrongly convicted $5,000 for every year of wrongful incarceration and caps the total that can be paid out at $25,000.

Risser and other lawmakers would increase the compensation amount to $50,000 for every year a wrongfully convicted person spends behind bars. Total payouts would be initially capped at $1 million — an amount that would be adjusted every five years in accordance with inflation. Exonorees also could participate at their own expense in the state’s health insurance program for up to a decade and would be offered various transitional services, such as job training and housing.

Committees in the state’s Senate and Assembly held public hearings on the proposal Dec. 18.

After Avery was exonerated in 2003, he became the namesake of a bill that recommended various changes to the state’s criminal justice system. Among other things, the legislation set new standards for the retention of DNA evidence, placed a priority on the use of DNA evidence in post-conviction cases, required that interrogations be recorded and set police procedures governing evidence provided by eyewitnesses.

The bill, which eventually passed the Legislature, drew recommendations from a task force composed of lawmakers from both major political parties, criminal justice experts and various others from around the state. Risser, a lawyer himself, was a member of the Senate Committee on Judiciary when it held a public hearing on the Avery bill. He said he has a clear memory of Avery giving testimony before the panel in 2005. Follow @erikastrebel