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True crime documentary Making A Murderer gripped the nation when the first season aired on Netflix in 2015, telling the story of Steven Avery, who spent 18 years in prison after being wrongfully convicted of sexual assault and attempted murder in 1985.

Just two years after his release, Steven, now 56, was handed a life sentence for the murder of Teresa Halbach in 2007 without the possibility of parole – with his nephew Brendan Dassey, 29, also given a life sentence with the earliest possible parole in 2048. Both remain incarcerated, and both protest their innocence to this day.

Over a decade after the pair’s convictions, season two allowed viewers to be introduced to Avery’s new powerhouse attorney, Katheen Zellner– whose incredibly high success rates for overturning wrongful sentences has led fans worldwide to believe she could be the one to free Steven once and for all.

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Now, there’s just days until Kathleen files the appellate brief for Steven on 20 December – a document which contains all the legal arguments as to why her client should win the case. Its purpose: to persuade the judges to rule in Stevens favour, and lead to his eventual release.

“You must, if you can, create reasonable doubt by having an alternative theory that matches the evidence,” Kathleen exclusively tells OK! online. “That’s when you’re most likely to win a murder case.”

And that’s exactly what Kathleen has tried to do. The 61-year-old lawyer has made no secret of the fact she is working not only to prove Steven is innocent, but also has enough evidence to suggest a third party suspect could have been involved.

(Image: Netflix)

The American attorney tirelessly works to disprove the findings of previous examinations and carries out a number experiments of her own. On the show, she also alleges countless times that Brendan’s brother Bobby Dassey and step-dad Scott Tadych may have been involved in the murder – something both parties vehemently denied.

Discussing the next stages in her fight for Steven to get a new trial, Kathleen told OK! online: “In one week, we’re filing the appellate brief, so we’re going to file all of this information with the higher court. We’ve got a record that’s 22,000 pages.

“The higher court is going to review all of this new evidence. After we file, the state will file their response, and then the court will have an oral argument, and then they’ll make a decision. Whatever decision they make, it’s going to go to the Wisconsin Supreme Court. So even if we win, the state will still force it to be decided by the highest court in Wisconsin.”

(Image: Netflix)

She continued: “My goal is to not just to find the constitutional violation to get Steven Avery a new trial, because many people are convicted again in their second trial. I am trying to get the evidence to what I believe is the truth of what happened, so that there won’t BE another trial.

“None of my exonerations has anyone been retried. None of them. Just this week we got a tip that was just jaw-dropping. Like, woah, somebody actually knows this. We’re getting close.”

Viewers were left in shock after Steven was denied a new trial by Sheboygan County Circuit Court judge Angela Sutkiewicz in September, with Kathleen claiming the state failed to disclose a CD they argued contains “exculpatory, material evidence”.

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In her ruling, the judge stated the defence had access to all the information on the CD in question.

Despite being disappointed with the lower court’s opinion, Kathleen explains the battle has “only just started”.

“We’ve only been in front of one judge,” she continued. “This is what is important to know. A lot of people were saying, ‘well you were turned down’. But we’ve only been in front of one judge, in the small county at the trial level, so she’s at the lowest level.

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“With wrongful convictions, those get turned over by the higher court. The trail court judge typically is not going to undo a big case like this, they just let it go to a higher court.

“We’ve never been in front of a higher court with all of this information. So Brendan’s case is ten years ahead of Steven’s. We’ve only just started.”

While Kathleen – who has overturned the convictions of 19 men during her career - is confident in the new evidence she is bringing forward, she adds that witness tips still continue to be invaluable even 13 years after the murder.

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She continued: “I think another thing that goes on in these cases that people don’t realise is that most murder cases, cold cases, end up being solved by witnesses finally coming forward.

“Someone else knows who committed this murder, and we are already getting tips about that. I believe – it’s happened on several of my cases – that someone will come forward and say ‘I know who committed the murder, they told me they committed the murder’. That’s still in play.”

With many fans left surprised over the difficulty of getting a new trial with Kathleen’s new evidence, some questioned if Steven would even walk free if someone else confessed to the murder.

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“If someone were to confess, it would have to be corroborated,” she continued. “I had one case where my client got out, and four weeks later the state’s attorney - on a tip - had caught the two real killers, and they were arrested and gave confessions. But my clients were already released.

“As long as it’s credible – if it’s someone within the family that knows, that would undo it. So no, is that going to take years? It could be tomorrow.

“Our longest case has taken four years, we’ve been on this two and a half. Many of these cases take 10 or 15 years – I don’t think that’s going to happen. I can already see with the tips that are coming in, there are people that know what happened. It’s just a question of – will they come forward.

“We’ve gotten some really, really strong tips just this week. We’re closing in on what happened.”

Next week, Kathleen tells OK! online what is contained in the report – and why she thinks her evidence is key to freeing Steven.