After a petition to pardon Making a Murderer subject Steven Avery reached 129,000 signatures, the White House has issued an official response.
The petition in question calls on President Obama to pardon Avery and Brendan Dassey for what supporters say was a wrongful conviction. The White House's response essentially outlines what has been clear from the beginning: the president does not have the power to pardon a state crime.
The official statement goes on to say that the president has issued 66 pardons while in office and has granted 184 commutations, and the administration has continuously strived to restore a sense of fairness to the justice system. However, there is simply nothing President Obama can do in this case.
The person who could pardon Avery and Dassey is Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. However, the governor recently said he will not do so, as he decided at the beginning of his administration that he will not issue pardons. A spokesperson said that wrongful convictions should be overturned by a higher court.
At this point, the best hope for Avery and Dassey is to get a new trial, possibly due to jury tampering. Attorney Dean Strang recently said that he and Jerry Buting may represent Steven Avery again.
“Jerry and I both have always been in touch with Steven, on and off,” Strang told The Daily Beast. “It’s clear that he probably needs formal legal representation [for] the specific, concrete things that a lawyer can do in the coming weeks and months."