Shane Nyman

USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin

As mentioned in previous daily "Making a Murderer" updates, Steven Avery prosecutor Ken Kratz was a guest on a recent episode of Dr. Drew's podcast. For those who didn't spend nearly an hour listening to what Kratz had to say about his struggles with addiction and the Avery case, another piece of the conversation has raised some eyebrows. Kratz told Dr. Drew that he struggled with a number of issues following the Avery trial and its intense pressure and bright spotlight, anxiety, insomnia and a dependency on prescription drugs among them.

"With the pressures I was under after the Avery case, this all began, I would suspect, as a result of the Avery case. It was a case that I was very much in the public eye, very much in the limelight for 18 straight months we were on the front page and really in a very, very high-profile case. And then it all stopped," Kratz told Dr. Drew.

Xanax, Ambien and Vicodin combined to make the "cocktail," as he described it, that helped him get through his days, but also led to "erratic" and "deplorable" behavior.

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"After this whole thing kind of blew up I became suicidal," said Kratz, who is now in recovery. "I actually put a gun in my mouth and was really, really having a hard time with having kind of gone from very well-respected and obviously very into my job to really vilified within maybe a 48- or 72-hour period."

(For those unaware, what he's likely referring to when he says things "kind of blew up": Kratz's tenure as Calumet County prosecutor ended in 2010 after the Associated Press reported that Kratz sent numerous sexually explicit text messages to a 25-year-old woman while he was prosecuting her ex-boyfriend for a crime. His law license was suspended for four months.)

Another item of note from the Dr. Drew interview that's been excerpted in a YouTube clip making the social media rounds: When talking about Brendan Dassey, he makes reference to a "false confession" and "the manipulation of this young man."

You can listen to the full episode over at drdrew.com.

Strang visits UW-Madison

Dean Strang, who after the release of "Making a Murderer" has become one of the state's most famous attorneys, was back in Wisconsin Tuesday for an appearance at UW-Madison.

The former Steven Avery defense attorney spoke at Shannon Hall in Memorial Union as part of the school's Distinguished Lecture Series.

"(This ruling portrays) that innocence does not matter very much to us; we do not value the lives of the wrongfully convicted," Strang said, according to the Badger Herald. "They are treated as the 'other,' and even when they are proven innocent and released, they are treated as outsiders."

The Madison attorney's speech also addressed the issue of racial disparities. Strang said it's one of the most urgent problems facing not just Wisconsin, but the country as a whole.

You can read the full report on Strang's appearance from the Badger Herald here. The Daily Cardinal also has a short piece on the speech.

Though Tuesday's event featured Strang solo, he's back with his pal Jerry Buting in late May for a run of appearances as part of their "A Conversation on Justice" tour. The next date on their tour schedule is May 20 in North Carolina.

They'll be closer to home in June, with a stop in Minneapolis on June 2 and another in Chicago on June 3. For more information about the tour, visit conversationonjustice.com.

Other tidbits

► "Making a Murderer" has scored a Webby Award win. The annual event, run by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, hands out awards for excellence on the internet. The Netflix series from filmmakers Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos won for the Film & Video Breakout of the Year category. The Webby results were announced Tuesday and other winners include the Weeknd, the Onion, Jessica Alba, Jerry Seinfeld, HBO Now and the founders of the #BlackLivesMatter movement.

► Andy Thompson of the USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin published a piece Tuesday about the attention "Making a Murderer" has put on innocence projects in Wisconsin and beyond.

"There has been an uptick in inquiries about the program, but not an uptick in inmate requests," said Keith Findley, a University of Wisconsin Law School professor and co-founder of the Wisconsin Innocence Project, which is examining about 300 cases for possible consideration.

The Innocence Project is not looking into the Halbach case. Avery is represented by attorney Kathleen Zellner, who has spoken confidently about Avery’s chances of getting exonerated a second time. Dassey, also convicted in Halbach’s murder, is represented in his appeal by the Bluhm Legal Clinic Center on Wrongful Convictions at the Northwestern University School of Law in Chicago.

► You wanted a "Making a Murderer" family tree? You got one. Bustle has put together an infographic intended to keep the Avery family, the Avery and Dassey defense teams and other key players from the Netflix series straight. There might not be a ton of use for this now — the show has been out for more than four months — but it could come in handy should there be a second season. (Or you could always get crafty with the family tree by printing it out and cutting out the little pictures to create your own weird little memory game.)

Shane Nyman: 920-996-7223, snyman@postcrescent.com or on Twitter @shanenyman