There’s a new, shocking development in the ‘Making a Murderer’ case

Making a Murder premiered on Dec. 18, and pretty much everyone with access to a Netflix account has binge-watched this story of Steven Avery, a man from Manitowoc, Wisconsin wrongfully accused of sexual assault in 1985 and jailed for 18 years before being exonerated based on DNA evidence. …Only to be served a life sentence four years later after being convicted of the 2005 murder of 25-year-old photographer Teresa Halbach. The series – and in turn, Avery’s case and the conflicting conspiratorial evidence surrounding it – has garnered so much attention it has generated over 300,000 signatures on WhiteHouse.gov and Change.org petitions calling for Avery’s second exoneration.

And the narrative is actually continuing long after our binge-watch, because details about the case seem to be getting more and more compelling as the days pass. Case in point? Filmmakers Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos told the TODAY show this morning that an anonymous juror from the 2005 murder case who personally voted to convict Avery recanted, saying they believe Avery was framed by the police.

“(The juror) told us that they believe Steven Avery was not proven guilty,” Ricciardi shared with the TODAY show. “They believe Steven was framed by law enforcement and that he deserves a new trial, and if he receives a new trial, in their opinion it should take place far away from Wisconsin.”

The juror went on to tell Ricciardi and Demos that, behind the scenes, the jury “compromised” their verdicts on each count – in essence, telling each other which counts they would each vote guilty and not guilty on to all share responsibility for the overall decision to convict.

“They told us really that they were afraid that if they held out for a mistrial that it would be easy to identify which juror had done that and that they were fearful for their own safety,”’ Demos added.

While the filmmakers haven’t spoken to any of the other jurors to confirm this single juror’s statements, this juror did agree to serve as a “source” in the event of a new trial. Currently, all of Avery’s state-level appeals have been denied, and he and his nephew – Brendan Dassey, who was also convicted as an accomplice to Halbach’s murder – are still serving time in prison due to their life sentences.

You can check out the entire TODAY show interview with Ricciardi and Demos here. This case just gets murkier and murkier, and we hope that whoever is responsible for Halbach’s death – whether it’s Avery, Dassey, both, or someone else – is discovered and administered the proper consequences.

(Image via Netflix)