White House: Obama can’t pardon ‘Making a Murderer’ convicts

The 170,000-plus signature strong petition called for President Obama to free Avery, who was convicted for the murder of Teresa Halbach back in 2007. The case has attracted national attention from the hit Netflix documentary series.

The power to pardon is reserved for the president when a person is convicted of a wrongdoing on the federal scale. “However, the President can not pardon a state criminal offense” the response said.

A high-profile attorney is now representing Steven Avery, the subject of a popular Netflix series “Making a Murderer”.

The Governor of Wisconsin, Scott Walker, previously said he has not watched the programme and will not pardon Avery, saying he should use the court system to appeal.

However, a Presidential pardon wouldn’t actually help Avery because Obama only has the authority to grant pardons for federal crimes, and Avery’s case was not federal. As reported by Deadline yesterday evening, the White House responded about the possibility of pardoning the protagonist of Netflix’s new doc-series in the negative.

We already brought some bad news to those people that were hoping to see Steven Avery exonerated of the murder charge for which he has spent the last eight-and-a-half years in prison. And now even the White House has weighed in, in response to the huge online support for Avery in a number of online petitions.

It’s a lot of political speak with the administration explaining Obama is committed to fairness in the justice system and why he has granted more commutations (184) than the five previous presidents combined.

Making A Murderer- Where are they now?

The special will provide viewers with critical details about the case, and will air in late January.

“Front Page: The Steven Avery Story” began production this week and will air in mid-January.

Two years after his release and his filing of a $36 million lawsuit against Manitowoc County for wrongful conviction, he was again accused and later convicted for the murder of Teresa Halbach.