Netflix's 'Making a Murderer' Spurs Petitions To President Barack Obama To Free Steven Avery

New Netflix murder documentary, Making a Murderer, is causing quite the stir, despite being out in its entirety for just under two weeks. Fans of the true life crime hit are petitioning President Barack Obama to re-examine the case.

Making a Murderer, Netflix's latest documentary hit, follows Steven Avery, a Wisconsin man who was accused of rape in 1985. Avery spent 18 years in prison before being let out in 2003, when DNA evidence cleared him of the crime.

Just under two years later, Avery was accused of murder. The series, which paints Avery as a victim of a prejudiced community as opposed to a guilty murderer, has ignited several online petitions asking President Barack Obama to pardon Avery, as well as his nephew Brendan Dassey, also convicted in the case, based on the evidence the show presents.

According to Entertainment Weekly, one petition pleads with Obama to re-examine the trials of Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey, calling the whole ordeal "a black mark on the justice system as a whole, and should be recognized as such." Another petition asks that Obama "pardon the Averys in Wisconsin and punish the corrupt officials who railroaded these innocent men" ending with the plea: "Watch Making a Murderer on Netflix. It tells the entire story."

The prosecutor in Avery's murder case, Ken Kratz, told Fox that he disagrees that the Netflix documentary tells "the entire story." "I believe there to be 80 to 90 percent of the physical evidence, the forensic evidence, that ties Steven Avery to this murder never to have been presented in this documentary," he said.

This isn't the first time in the last few months that a documentary piece has spurred action on the behalf of its subject matter. The most listened-to podcast of all time, Serial, which re-examined the true murder case of Hae Min Lee, sparked enough public interest in the case that a judge agreed to reopen the case to allow the man convicted, Adnan Syed, to present new evidence in his defense.

Making a Murderer is now streaming on Netflix. Seasons 1 and 2 of Serial are currently streaming online as well.