It doesn’t look like Making a Murderer’s Steven Avery will get a chance to speak his piece anytime soon. Journalists have been barred from chatting with the convicted murderer for a pretty unusual reason, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
“We are not facilitating interviews out of respect for the victims,” Joy Staab, the director of public relations for the Wisconsin Department of Corrections, told THR.
Avery, 53, is currently serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole at the Waupun Correctional Institution in Wisconsin for the 2005 murder of Teresa Halbach.
According to his former defense attorney Jerry Buting, this is the first time that a prison has cited consideration for the victims as a reason to deny access to an inmate.
“I’ve never heard that explanation given before,” Buting told THR, adding that the only reason prisons typically bar interaction with an inmate is for security purposes. “So, I just don’t know.”
Staab also confirmed that Avery is not notified when a media interview request is made.
If journalists wish to reach the convicted murderer, Staab explained, they can write him a letter, just like any regular member of the public, and he can choose whether to add certain people to his visitor list.
Earlier this week, Making a Murderer’s directors, Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos, told reporters at the Television Critics Association’s winter press tour panel for the series in Pasadena, California, that Avery has been denied his request to watch the hit Netflix series.
"Steven does not have access to the series," Ricciardi said. “When we spoke to him recently, his focus was mainly on his case. At the time we last spoke with him, he was representing himself.”
The directing duo have been in touch with Avery on occasion, they told reporters.
“[We have had] several conversations, telephone conversations, with Steven Avery,” Ricciardi said. “And we did record those calls with an eye towards including them in any episodes, should there be any future episodes. But we’ve not returned to Wisconsin in the past four weeks.”
