White House responds to petition asking for President Obama to pardon Making a Murderer subjects

(Image credit: Twitter/Huffington Post)

published 8 January 2016

The popular Netflix series Making a Murderer has sparked an online petition calling for President Obama to pardon the two main subjects of the show, Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey. Avery was convicted in 2007 of murdering Teresa Halbach and has argued that local police framed him. The petition for a pardon has raised over 200,000 signatures since it was created on December 20.

The White House responded to the requests by saying there was nothing it could do legally, because both men were convicted under Wisconsin law, The Hill reports. "This clemency authority empowers the president to exercise leniency towards persons who have committed federal crimes,” The White House said. "Since Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey are both state prisoners, the president cannot pardon them. A pardon in this case would need to be issued at the state level by the appropriate authorities."

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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.