How ‘Making A Murderer’ Disgraced Prosecutor Ken Kratz Tried To Shut Down The Documentary

By now, most people have at least heard about Netflix’s newest true crime documentary, Making A Murderer. For Ken Kratz, the leading prosecuting attorney in the case against Stephen Avery, the series has gone far in destroying his reputation and practice. It is no wonder, then, that the attorney tried his best to derail the documentary before it was completed.

According to Digital Spy, Kratz went so far as to issue a subpoena during the trial to make the filmmakers hand over their video. Apparently, Kratz believed that the Making a Murderer creators had important information regarding the case.

However, the film’s two creators, Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos, would not back down. In fact, the two filmmakers fought against Kratz’s motion and managed to win.

“Ken Kratz was alleging in [the subpoena that we were] acting as an investigative arm of the defence,” Ricciardi explained in an interview with Indiewire. “So we brought the motion to quash the subpoena, refuting Mr Kratz’s accusations as baseless.”

Their willingness to fight Kratz is impressive given the situation surrounding the film. With both Ricciardi and Demos working without the backing of any major network, Kratz’s case against them could have easily stopped them from continuing to film. Fortunately, Ricciardi and Demos weathered the storm and were able to finish the project.

“We were two independent filmmakers,” Demos stated in the same interview. “We wouldn’t have had the money, and certainly it would have taken a ton of time to duplicate our footage, close to 300 hours of footage at that time, just to produce all of that for the state would have shut us down.”

What’s interesting about the subpoena is that Kratz wanted the filmmakers to hand over all of their taped conversations with Avery. However, since all of their conversations with Avery took place while he was in prison, the state already had access to all of the information. This leaves open the question of Kratz’s true intentions behind the subpoena.

Meanwhile, Bustle is reporting that Kratz has had a difficult time following the release of the documentary. During an interview with Nancy Grace, Kratz revealed that he has received thousands of angry emails and that his office was even glitter-bombed.

When Grace questioned Kratz about the threats he has received, the attorney revealed that fans of Making a Murderer have sent him some 3,000 messages. While he failed to give a specific number, Kratz stated that the majority of the emails were negative in nature.

“A good portion, however, are not only threatening but threatening to the point of including specificity,” Kratz added. “We had a package that we received last week that exploded in our office. And although it only exploded glitter, one of those glitter bombs, it caused significant damage to our office equipment.”

For her part, Grace is confident that Avery is guilty of the murder of Teresa Halbach, despite the evidence presented in the documentary. Her interview with Kratz was meant to provide answers to those who believe that Avery is innocent and help Kratz present his side of the story.

Grace’s views are contrary to the opinions of the larger American public. In fact, many people who watch the series come away with the feeling that Avery was once again wrongfully convicted for a crime he didn’t commit.

So far, an online petition to pardon Avery for his crimes has managed to gain a little over 400,000 signatures. While fans wait to find out if anything comes of the petition and news coverage of the case, a second series is expected to be in the works.

Tell us! Do you think the Making a Murderer filmakers left out key evidence against Steven Avery? Let us know in the comments below.

[Image via Netflix]