Famed Making A Murderer lawyer Kathleen Zellner is known for exonerating more innocent people from jail than any other lawyer in America. Zellner rose to world wide fame a few years ago after she began representing Steven Avery, the subject of the ever so popular Netflix series, Making A Murderer.
If you are a fan of Zellner’s work, you will most certainly want to watch the newest Netflix true crime documentary, Dream/Killer. The documentary tackles the tale of a father battling against the American justice system in an effort to get his son Ryan free, with him having been jailed for a murder he claims he was not responsible for.
The film follows the 2001 murder of a man named Kent Heitholt who had been strangled to death with his own belt and left in a car park at his workplace.
Unsolved for two years, the case took a turn when police received an anonymous tip-off about a man named Charles “Chuck” Erickson, who attended multiple Halloween parties on the night of Heitholt’s murder and was taking drugs when he met his friend Ryan Ferguson at 10.30pm that evening.
Erickson said he was unsure if it was a memory or a dream when he thought of killing Heitholt, but his statements incriminated him and Ryan in a police interview.
Kathleen Zellner
Ryan was very clear in his statements that he had no idea what had happened and that he was not involved in the murder what so ever, but police told him that Chuck had given them vital information that the press did not know.
Chuck was charged with murder in the second degree, while Ryan was charged with murder in the first degree.
At the age of 20, Ryan stood trial, with the main evidence against him being Erickson’s testimony of memories that came to him after speaking with police.
When Ryan’s dad began his own investigations in an effort to prove his son’s innocents, he realized that the police were in the wrong and that lies and aggression fueled the investigation.
Ryan eventually found his way to freedom — but how did this happen?
Well, enter Kathleen Zellner!
Dream/Killer is so worth a watch if you are a true crime buff! It will open your eyes to just how flawed the American justice system truly is and how badass Kathleen Zellner is!
