(Reuters) - The White House on Thursday rejected calls for the release of Steven Avery, the convicted Wisconsin man at the center of popular Netflix streaming series "Making a Murderer," as another outlet announced that the case would return to television.

Investigation Discovery channel said it has started work on a follow-up TV special to the murder case that has sparked petitions calling for Avery's release after the Netflix show raised concerns about a possible miscarriage of justice.

"Front Page: The Steven Avery Story" is expected to air in late January and expects to "present crucial testimony and information that addresses many of the questions surrounding Steven Avery," Investigation Discovery's group president Henry Schlieff said in a statement.

"Making a Murderer," a 10-hour documentary about Avery's arrest and conviction for a 2005 murder, has become one of the most talked-about shows in Netflix history since it began streaming in mid-December.

One petition, on Whitehouse.gov, asked President Barack Obama to pardon Avery and received more than 113,000 signatures. But the White House on Thursday officially turned down the request, saying on the website that the U.S. president does not have authority to issue pardons in state cases.

The Netflix documentary, which began filming 10 years ago, recounts how Avery was convicted of an earlier, unrelated rape and sent to prison in 1985, serving 18 years before DNA evidence exonerated him and he was released.

In 2005, Avery, and his learning-challenged teenaged nephew Brendan Dassey, were arrested and later sentenced to life in prison for the killing of photographer Teresa Halbach on their rural scrap car property near Manitowoc.

The documentary, and Avery's defense team, suggested that law enforcement officials in Manitowoc County planted evidence against Avery after he filed a $36 million federal civil rights lawsuit against the county over his 1985 conviction. The current sheriff of Manitowoc County has rejected those claims.

Another petition on Change.org calling for Avery's exoneration has gathered more than 342,000 signatures.

(Reporting By Jill Serjeant; Editing by David Gregorio)