Netflix s gripping true crime series Making a Murderer explores the complex case of Steven Avery, a Wisconsin man who was wrongfully convicted of sexual assault and eventually exonerated only to be convicted of murder years later under suspicious circumstances. The 10-part documentary illuminates deep flaws in the U.S. criminal justice system by putting on display a panoply of questionable behavior from police and prosecutors. While the series revelations may be shocking to some, the truth is theyre all too common.

Avery spent 18 years in prison after being wrongfully convicted of sexual assault and attempted murder in 1985. In 2003, improved DNA testing technology revealed that the actual assailant was Gregory Allen, a convicted rapist who was already serving a 60-year prison sentence for another crime. Avery was set free and began to get his life back on track. He filed a $36 million federal lawsuit against the county, the sheriff and the district attorney in his case, alleging that they were negligent in their investigation and prosecution. Averys case became known in Wisconsin as an example of overzealous policing, and it prompted state lawmakers to pass a bill in Averys name intended to halt wrongful convictions.

Two years later, Avery found himself at the center of another crime the gruesome death of Teresa Halbach, a freelance photographer whose remains were found in a burn pit on Averys property.

Avery was arrested and convicted in the killing of Halbach, and was sentenced for the crime alongside his young nephew, who was charged as an accomplice. But in Making a Murderer, the filmmakers showcase compelling evidence suggesting that Avery may have been framed for Halbachs murder by the same law enforcement officials who wrongfully accused him of sexual assault in 1985.

Along the way, the filmmakers examine, explain or at least allude to any number of dubious techniques that police and prosecutors have been known to use techniques that critics say distort the criminal justice system and prevent people all over the country from getting a fair shake.

Coaxing Confessions Out Of Innocent People

Police obtained what they said was a confession from Brendan Dassey, Averys nephew, that formed the basis for much of the prosecutions case against Avery. At one point in the documentary, Ken Kratz, the prosecutor in the Halbach murder case, describes a supposed timeline of the murder in upsetting detail, and its implied that much of the information in that timeline came from Dasseys detailed account. But when you watch the tape of the actual police interview with Dassey, it looks less like a detailed confession and much more like coercion.

At the time of the interview, Dassey was 16 and did not have an attorney or a parent present. According to court records, Dassey has an IQ of somewhere between 69 and 73 an IQ of 70 is often considered the threshold for intellectual disability and on the tape, you can see police posing detailed questions to Dassey, who replies with short, often one-word answers.

This is a well-known and controversial style of interrogation. Its called the Reid technique , and its led to numerous situations where an innocent person ends up confessing to a crime they never committed. Teens are especially susceptible to tactics like this .

In a nutshell, the primal fatal flaw of the Reid technique, on display in the interrogation of Brendan Dassey, is that it is a guilt-presumptive process inflicted on suspects who have already been judged deceptive and guilty, Saul Kassin, a psychology professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, told The Huffington Post in an email. That is why the interrogation of Dassey appeared so relentlessly driven to produce a confession regardless of all his denials, regardless of his innocence claims, and regardless of his ignorance until prompted of basic crime facts that a perpetrator should have known.

In an analysis of hundreds of cases going back to 1989, false confessions were found to be one of the leading causes of wrongful convictions, according to the Innocence Project, a nonprofit legal clinic dedicated to exonerating people who have been wrongfully convicted. Overall, about 31 percent of wrongful conviction cases included a false confession , but for homicide cases alone, that number balloons to 63 percent. More than 30 exonerees who were later freed due to DNA evidence pled guilty to crimes they did not commit.

The Reid technique is perfectly effective when used on suspects who are guilty, Kassin said. The problem is, it is overly effective, on those [who] are innocent too. And theres why you get false confessions.