Steven Avery Denied Make Or Break DNA Test On ‘Skeletal Remains’

Making A Murderer's Steven Avery has been denied a make or break DNA test on "suspected human skeletal remains" he had hoped would prove his innocence.

Just last month, Kathleen Zellner - Avery's lawyer - filed a bid for new "rapid DNA identification" testing to be carried out on bones which were recovered but never identified in the original investigation into the 2005 murder of Teresa Halbach.

However, this request has been rejected by the Wisconsin Court of Appeals - a decision she says won't affect her client's case.

Kathleen - who has one of the highest success rates in overturning wrongful convictions in the US - told Rolling Stone: "The Appellate Court did not deny the bone testing, they denied our request to remand [the case] to the Circuit Court ... to allow the bones to be tested.

"The Appellate Court did not want to add a new issue of bone testing."

Netflix

And speaking to Newsweek, she also insisted: "The bottom line is that the appellate court is not preventing Avery from doing the bone testing after the appeal is completed or by agreement with the new attorney general while the appeal is pending."

A new attorney general was elected in November for Wisconsin.

Avery and his nephew Brendan Dassey were jailed for the murder of Teresa in 2005 - something which both have always denied.

The new series of Making A Murderer centred on Avery's new lawyer Kathleen as she tries to overturn his conviction.

Prosecutors claimed in the original 2007 trial that bone fragments and tissue recovered on the Avery property was enough evidence to show they had burned Teresa's body after the murder.

However, the defence team have always argued that this evidence was 'planted'.

Netflix

More bones - including a "possible human pelvic bone" - were recovered from a gravel pit near the Avery property. These are the bones that Kathleen filed to be analysed using new DNA testing methods.

She also told Rolling Stone: "We will be filing another motion with the appellate court on new evidence we have discovered as a result of our request to test the bones."

Topics: TV News, Making A Murderer, Netflix

Rachel Andrews

Rachel Andrews is an NCTJ trained Journalist at PRETTY52. She specialises in Fashion and Beauty Journalism, and has experience at a range of online and print publications and joined the team in 2017. Contact her - [email protected]

@rachelandrews_x