Correction: The Northern Star incorrectly reported NIU Alumna Kathleen Zellner graduated in 1983. Zellner graduated in 1981.

NIU Alumna Kathleen Zellner, who graduated in 1983, will take on Making a Murderer star Steven Avery as a client, according to an Alumni Events and Public Relations news release. 

Zellner is known for defending wrongfully convicted clients and getting them exonerated as well as being awarded damages, according to the news release. Zellner will work with the Midwest Innocence Project on the Avery case, which was made popular on the Netflix series, according to the news release.

“These innocence projects have an excellent track record of demonstrating that on contrary to the public’s perception, I think miscarriages of justice happen all the time,” said Marc Falkoff, acting associate dean for the College of Law.

On Dec. 14, 1985, Avery was wrongfully convicted of rape and sentenced to 32 years in prison, according to the Innocence Project website.  Avery was convicted almost solely on eye witness testimonies, according to the website. Avery was exonerated on Sept. 11, 2003 due to DNA testing after spending nearly 18 years in prison.

There was a lot of evidence to suggest that police misconduct was involved in the rape case, Falkoff said. After Avery was exonerated he filed a lawsuit against public officials in Wisconsin, and while that lawsuit was in progress there was a murder in Wisconsin, and Avery was arrested as a suspect in that murder case, Falkoff said.

“She’s trying to get him out of prison for the murder,” Falkoff said.

On Oct. 31, 2005, Avery along with his nephew Brendan Dassey were sentenced to life in prison, according to the Innocence Project website.

“So I would just say that if you watch the Netflix series and you think that Steven Avery is either innocent or that at the very least he got shafted by the criminal justice system then you should be very glad indeed that a lawyer like our alumna, Kathleen Zellner, is on the case, because he is going to get as good a chance at getting a new trial as he could possibly get from any lawyer in the nation,” Falkoff said.