On December 18, 2015, Netflix released Making a Murderer, a 10-episode original documentary series which retells Avery's story.[18] The documentary "examines allegations of police and prosecutorial misconduct, evidence tampering and witness coercion."[3] On December 20, 2015, a petition was created at petitions.whitehouse.gov titled "Investigate and pardon the Averys in Wisconsin and punish the corrupt officials who railroaded these innocent men".[19] On December 22, 2015, the Innocence Project issued a statement stating "a member of the Innocence Network is currently looking into some aspects of his case".[20][21]
On January 7, 2016, after the petition on petitions.whitehouse.gov had reached 129,800 signatures, thus passing the threshold needed for an official White House response, the White House responded to the petition, explaining the limits to the President's pardoning power under the United States Constitution and stating that since Avery and Dassey "are both state prisoners, the President cannot pardon them. A pardon in this case would need to be issued at the state level by the appropriate authorities.