Making a Murderer's Strang and Buting on defending Steven Avery and their new tour
When Netflix's true crime series Making a Murderer took off, it thrust defence attorneys Dean Strang and Jerry Buting into the limelight.
Whether you watched the show or not, you've likely heard of Steven Avery by now — he was exonerated for a 1985 sexual assault charge, but just before the state agreed to pay a settlement, he was arrested and later convicted for the murder of Teresa Hallbach. While some believe Avery actually committed this crime, Making a Murderer looks at the possibility that he was framed by the police.
While the case itself and its outcome are serious matters, the passion with which viewers watched the show made unlikely pop culture figures of Avery's defence team — a quick search on almost any social media platform pulls up thinkpieces, heart-filled memes and fawning over Strang and Buting.
But Strang and Buting aren't interested in the attention they're receiving as heartthrobs (though they say their wives get a kick out of it). What's important to them is the ensuing conversation about the justice system, its flaws, and how it can be improved. That's why Strang and Buting have embarked on a North American lecture series, A Conversation on Justice.
"That's one of the things about this documentary — a lot of people are waking up to what really goes on in their courthouses," Buting tells Shad, "and hopefully, they're not going to stand for some of the abuses that we see here. You have to resist, you fight back and if you lose, you got to pick yourself up and fight again."
WEB EXTRA | Strang and Buting's lecture series A Conversation on Justice will be in Toronto on June 11.