Doug Schneider

USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin

DE PERE – Slightly more than 1 in 5 respondents believe police fabricated evidence against convicted killer Steven Avery, according to a poll of Wisconsin adults released this week.

Twenty-two percent of respondents to the Wisconsin Survey, conducted by St. Norbert College, answered "definitely true" or "probably true" to the statement, "Manitowoc County law enforcement fabricated evidence to frame Steven Avery."

Slightly more than half found the statement probably or definitely not true. The remaining 28 percent are undecided, according to the survey.

Pollster and political science professor Wendy Scattergood said she included the Avery question in a section assessing beliefs about issues that have polarized Americans, and that have spawned conspiracy theories. She also asked about vaccinations, climate change beliefs and Russia's influence in the 2016 election of Donald Trump.

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"There's not much research out there on conspiracy theories, and I've been wanting to ask questions about some for a while," Scattergood said.

While the other questions involve national issues, she thought the Avery question would resonate with Wisconsinites because of the amount of attention paid to the case.

Responses to the survey show a degree of polarization.

Republicans, for example, were much more likely to believe police did not fabricate evidence against Avery; 78 percent said that claim is probably or definitely untrue. Only 42 percent of Democrats believe the statement is probably or definitely untrue.

Surveyors interviewed 303 people between April 24 and May 8. The margin of error is plus or minus 5.6 percent.

Avery, for the uninitiated, is one of two members of a Manitowoc County family serving life in prison for the brutal 2005 slaying of photographer Teresa Halbach. The Hilbert High School and University of Wisconsin-Green Bay graduate had gone to Avery's auto-salvage yard to photograph a car he hoped to sell.

The case of Avery and his nephew and co-defendant, Brendan Dassey, formed the basis for the wildly popular Netflix documentary, 'Making a Murderer."

The 10-part series has sparked passionate debates, particularly online and on social media, between people who agree with jurors who convicted the pair and people who believe Manitowoc County authorities conspired against Avery because he was suing them for millions of dollars for his wrongful conviction in a 1985 rape case.

In particular, conspiracy theorists point to the fact that Halbach's car key, found in Avery's bedroom on the seventh search of the room, was located by Manitowoc County sheriff's officials who were not supposed to be involved in the search.

In other Making a Murderer news this week:

» Former Avery defense attorney-turned-author Jerome Buting has been tweeting about upcoming appearances in the Midwest, including two in Wisconsin.

The first: Saturday morning at Oshkosh's Lakefly Writers Conference. That'll be followed by one June 11 at Printers Row LitFest in Chicago, and another with interviewer Doug Moe June 14 at Madison's Mystery to Me bookstore.

Earlier this year, Buting published "Illusion of Justice: Inside Making a Murderer and America's Broken System."

» Wisconsin Law Journal contributor Michael D. Cicchini asks in a blog post about "critical omissions" in Making a Murderer.

Specifically, he makes the case that the police investigators who interrogated Dassey pressured the then-16-year-old into repeatedly adjusting his story of the Halbach killing until it fit the narrative they sought.

"As the false-confession expert Lawrence White stated in Making a Murderer, when interrogators repeatedly reject a suspect’s answer and insist on honesty, it’s not hard to translate," he writes. "What that means is, 'Don’t tell us that, tell us something else.' And Dassey did."

Cicchini, a Kenosha attorney, is the author of "Convicting Avery: The Bizarre Laws and Broken System behind Making a Murderer."

» My colleague John Ferak looks at statements made on Twitter by Avery's appeals lawyer, Kathleen Zellner, in which she professed Avery's innocence and promised "a tsunami of new evidence" in the case.

The story says some people are questioning whether Zellner has been unable to compile as strong a case as she implied she would in previous public statements.

"It's sort of unfortunate that the sales job seems to be obscuring what is probably very good lawyering," said Matthew Haiduk, a veteran criminal defense attorney in suburban Chicago. "It's going to take some sort of evidence that was not available at that (2007) trial and being able to point to someone else who may have committed the crime."

» Speaking of Zellner, she's been quiet on Twitter but retweeted her earlier statement that she "would not still be (representing Avery) if the test results proved his guilt. Winning takes a little longer than losing."

» Finally, Making a Murderer film-makers Moira Demos and Laura Ricciardi have been maintaining radio silence recently about season two, so the tabloid websites have been running "what we know so far" recaps. Here's one from blastingnews.com.