FOND DU LAC – Did Steven Avery murder Teresa Halbach?

That's the subject of the Netflix documentary series “Making a Murderer” ­­— and now a course at Marian University.

The case of Steven Avery is one that Alan Johnson, assistant professor and Criminal Justice Department chair, has heard a lot about from Marian students. Frequently, it is a source of questions, as well as the sought-after topic of assignments in which students can choose a case to investigate, he said.

“There’s something about him that really intrigues people,” he said.

Avery was convicted in 2007 of the murder of freelance photographer Teresa Halbach, of St. John, on Halloween 2005. Halbach had come to the Avery property to take photos of his sister’s minivan for Auto Trader magazine. She was reported missing on Nov. 3 and two days later, her SUV was found on the Avery family’s salvage yard property, according to USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin archives.

Also found on the property were her bone fragments in a burn pit; teeth matching her dental records; her car keys in Avery’s home; and blood matching Avery’s in her car. In 2006, Brendan Dassey, Avery’s nephew, confessed that Avery assaulted and murdered Halbach, and that he was a party to it.

The murder was not the first time Avery had stood trial. Two years prior, he was released from prison, 18 years after being falsely convicted of attempted murder and sexual assault based on a misidentification. He sued Manitowoc County for $36 million and leading up to Halbach’s death, was in litigation.

Johnson makes for an interesting source on the topic. His knowledge on the Avery cases was not only developed from media coverage or watching the documentary series. As a retired lieutenant with the Milwaukee Police Department, Johnson met Avery, the victim of the sexual assault and an expert, as the state discussed changes to eyewitness identification procedure. During the meeting, Avery told of his experience of being wrongfully convicted.

There were no signs of what was to come.

"As a cop, we most often meet people at their worst. It was interesting to meet someone who had been wrongly convicted and years later alleged to commit another crime," he said.

Making a college course

With all the interest, the criminal justice department believed Avery's story and "Making a Murderer" had merit as a new course. As the Netflix documentary series piqued intrigue, The class is centered around the Netflix docu-series and takes place online, so students can watch and discuss it within their own schedules.

When it began this spring, 21 students enrolled in the class with majors including criminal justice and psychology.Some have seen the documentary before, while others, like criminal justice majors Veronica Zdun and Charmaine Harris knew nearly nothing about it.

Zdun, prior to her roommate convincing her to take the course to fulfill a requirement for her major, only knew that the case surrounded a “Wisconsin resident who had killed another Wisconsin resident,” she said. For Harris, the draw came after she took a tour of Waupun Correctional Institution through one of her other classes, and learned of Avery.

Without any preconceived notions, the students looked upon the documentary — and the issues presented in it — with fresh eyes. First up for students was discussing Avery’s original conviction for sexual assault and attempted murder in 1985. Along with viewing the documentary, students had assignments on the topics of eyewitness identification, its accuracy, false identification and the role of the Wisconsin Innocence Project.

This information is valuable to Harris, who finds it to be one of the most important topics touched on in the class. It shows how someone who is not thinking clearly could be coerced into believing the perpetrator is another suspect, landing an innocent person in jail.

Defense attorneys believe Dassey’s appeal attorneys are convinced that his confession was coerced. To analyze this facet of the case, students are learning about juvenile interrogations and the “regulations required by investigators to make sure the information the juvenile is given willfully by the juvenile,” said Zdun. Rather than watching the documentary’s version of the interrogation only, Johnson also had students watch an hour-long video of his confession used by the prosecution.

“There’s a lot of disagreement, back and forth, between people about how that happened. That’s probably been the best back and forth so far between students on how they look at that,” said Johnson.

Pairing these aspects allows students without knowledge from criminal justice courses to lay a foundation of procedures, while adding to it for students that already have that foundation. Both help students think critically, rather than with emotion, said Johnson.

“The documentary, even though it’s about 10 hours long, it doesn’t give a lot of background investigation to what the law is regarding these different areas,” said Johnson.

Discussion leads to consideration of new perspectives

With each class comes an online discussion on various parts of the case. During one, students were asked to view interviews of Halbach’s family, as well as Avery, and think about how they would react if in the situation.

To monitor changing opinions, students each week must answer the survey question: “Is Steven Avery guilty of murder of Teresa Halbach?” They have three options: yes, no or not sure. Each week, the numbers change. As some believe he is not guilty, others believe the documentary is biased toward depicting that, said Johnson. Students frequently ask Johnson what he believes, but he stays mum to avoid impacting their opinion.

Four weeks in, Harris believed Avery didn't do it, while Zdun's opinions change with the information as the documentary shows more information that evidence was “either falsified,” she said, “or there was some other way the situations could have happened.”

“The case has proven that as a society, there are people who only care about the convictions and not the conviction of a criminal. As a society, we want to be able to have closure as a victim and a closure in a case, but sometimes, these closures are two extremely different cases,” said Zdun.

Always a murderer, or made into one?

Since there are less episodes than classes, the last couple of weeks of the course will be devoted to analyzing outside evaluations from commentators of Avery and Dassey’s case, and deciding whether they agree or not.

Then, to bring together all they learned, the students will write a paper defending their position on the case. Johnson will also ask what the impact is on society for falsely convicting someone, and if Avery did murder Halbach, is his prior false conviction related to why he re-offended — and on whom does that responsibility fall?

“If you spend 18 years in prison, and other inmates and guards, everybody thinks you’re a rapist, do they treat you in a certain way and do you take on some of that persona?” said Johnson. “Was he already a murderer and just hadn’t committed a murder? Or did the time he spent in prison kind of turn him into one?”

Thus far, students love the course, said Johnson, including a Fond du Lac High School student, whose mother said he can’t stop talking about it. Criminal justice majors tell Johnson it is a course they wish they could take more of, as it allows them to use “real-life examples to learn the material.”

Students feel they are building skills to use in their fields, such as critical thinking, being able to “view evidence from an impartial viewpoint,” and recognizing the various ways things can go wrong in the criminal justice system and impact a person’s life, said Zdun and Harris. However, the takeaways are not only applicable to those going into criminal justice, said Zdun.

“(The course) shows the different ways that a community can interpret a case, but also the different ways evidence can be shown, planted or viewed throughout a case,” she said.

The course will be held again this summer online at Marian University and is open to the public. Those interested can register through May 5. For more information, contact Marian University at 1-800-262-7426 or visit marianuniversity.edu.

One day, Johnson hopes to expand the course’s reach to the “general population” even further, and use the case as a tool in teaching how the justice system really operates, rather than "what they saw in a documentary.”

“Hopefully after 15 weeks of different lessons related to this, they have a bigger understanding of the impact these different cases have on society.”

RELATED:A presidential assassin, a 'Psycho' and more: 6 infamous inmates held in Waupun

RELATED:'Just like us': How Wisconsin held captive, and made peace with, German POWs in World War II

RELATED:Paddy's North Pizza Pub to close; Eden location to remain open | Streetwise