Netflix releases Steven Avery documentary

Gannett Wisconsin Media

The 10-part documentary series covering the homicide case of Steven Avery was released Friday on Netflix.

The on-demand provider of movies and TV shows states "Making a Murderer" was filmed throughout 10 years and "this real-life thriller follows a DNA exoneree who, while exposing police corruption, becomes a suspect in a grisly new crime."

Avery was cleared of a 1985 rape conviction after serving 18 years in prison following the discovery of new evidence that linked the crime to another man. About two years after his 2003 release, Avery and his teenage nephew, Brendan Dassey, were accused of killing 25-year-old freelance photographer Teresa Halbach on the family's auto salvage yard near Mishicot.

Avery was convicted and sentenced in 2007 to life in prison with no chance of parole. Dassey, who also was convicted, will become eligible for parole in 2048.

The documentary "takes viewers inside a riveting, high-stakes criminal case where reputation is everything and things are never as they appear," Netflix said in a previous news release. "The filmmakers have documented every angle of the story, following the second investigation and ensuing trial of the accused, petitioning the court to avoid having to turn over their footage, gathering archival materials and interviewing those closest to the case."

This isn't the first time the case has been profiled in a source other than the media. A prosecutor in Manitowoc County published a book about the case in 2014.

Each episode in the Netflix series is about an hour long.