TL;DR: Two mods on r/MakingAMurderer are overstepping their bounds to the point of mod abuse.

Context

[https://snew.github.io/r/makingamurderer/about/log](Mod log can be found here)

The drama in this post originates from the Making A Murderer sub. Making A Murderer is a documentary series on Netflix released on December 18, 2015. It follows Steven Avery, a man who was wrongfully convicted of sexual assault and spent 18 years in prison for the crime. After release in 2003, he filed a wrongful conviction lawsuit against Manitowoc County for $36 million. Numerous individuals were deposed. On October 31st, 2005, Teresa Halbach, a local photographer, goes missing while taking pictures for AutoTrader magazine. Suspicions quickly fall on Avery, and along with his nephew, Brendan Dassey, was arrested and convicted of her murder. They remain in prison to this day. Both men are filing appeals to have their convictions overturned.

The Making A Murderer sub originally was the only subreddit concerning discussion about Avery's case. After an original dose of drama([https://www.reddit.com/r/TickTockManitowoc/comments/4kvcfn/brief_history_of_the_rmakingamurderer_meltdown/?st=JIC4YSB2&sh=e7bc66b0](context can be found here)), discussion split several ways. Those who thought Avery was innocent formed a new subreddit, entitled r/TickTockManitowoc. Those who thought Avery was guilty created r/StevenAveryIsGuilty. Some continued to stay on r/MakingAMurderer. Mods that favor guilt have seniority over those that favor innocence.

The Drama

As I just mentioned, Avery is seeking to have his conviction overturned, and his case to do so is still active. Before the case was appealed to a higher court, a Circuit Court judge denied him a new trial on October 3rd, 2017. Shortly afterwards, someone attempted to send flowers to the judge that denied the trial. Those flowers were received in November.

"Greetings: I wanted to notify the parties that an individual sent a floral arrangement to the courthouse on November 29, 2017, addressed to me and it was forwarded to my office," Angela Sutkiewicz wrote in the letter. "It contained a piece of paper which stated, 'Best wishes from your admirers at SAIG (Steven Avery Is Guilty).' A copy is enclosed.

"The Sheriff's Department was contacted in an abundance of caution. They determined that the sender is neither a party to the case nor representing a party in this case.

"Since the floral arrangement is a gift, I rejected it by returning it to the flower shop today (Thursday)," the judge wrote.

Here are some threads on r/MakingAMurderer when the incident happened.

https://www.reddit.com/r/MakingaMurderer/comments/7gyjla/wait_whaaaaat/?st=JIC6PLJ7&sh=d526a960

https://www.reddit.com/r/MakingaMurderer/comments/7h6bk2/unless_someone_can_show_me_real_evidence_i_dont/?st=JIC6Q4R7&sh=a385ebf7

https://www.reddit.com/r/MakingaMurderer/comments/7hcun8/judge_cries_foul_after_after_antisteven_avery/?st=JIC6QFFE&sh=4e2a9715

Which brings us to the current drama. A few days ago, a police report obtained by FOIA identified the sender of the flowers to the judge. The flower sender was revealed to have a connection to the case by relation to the District Attorney that prosecuted Avery when he was wrongfully convicted. This District Attorney was also scheduled to be deposed in Avery's wrongful conviction suit. However, Avery was arrested for the murder of Teresa Halbach mere days before the deposition.

Since this revelation, moderators of r/MakingAMurderer have deleted several threads related to this incident. Since I have began typing this post, three users have been banned permanently for "doxxing" and "witch-hunting" the sender. All of the posts and bans have been done by 2 moderators, those that believe Avery is guilty. None of the threads dox the sender nor reveal any information that is not publicly available. Here are a few.

https://snew.github.io/r/MakingaMurderer/comments/8qcsuv/why_can_we_not_talk_about_beautiful_flowers_sent/

https://snew.github.io/r/MakingaMurderer/comments/8qmkoq/flowers/

https://snew.github.io/r/MakingaMurderer/comments/8qc5mm/flowergate/

https://snew.github.io/r/MakingaMurderer/comments/8qaa2f/dv_flowers/

https://snew.github.io/r/MakingaMurderer/comments/8py0ah/new_judge_in_sa_case/

All of these posts have been removed under the guise of Rules 4 and 5 of r/MakingAMurderer, which state as follows:

1. Posts unrelated to Making A Murderer or the issues presented in the case will be removed - this includes memes & image macros, scenes from other shows or movies, or comparing the physical features of people portrayed on the show to various actors. Please keep your posts on-topic.

2. No doxing. Do not share or ask for personal information not included in the documentary or other official source. (NO links to social media, unless approved.)

However, all of the posts related to the issue are relevant to Making A Murderer AND Steven Avery's case. As his case is still active and a letter sent to respective attorneys from the judge references the incident, it is considered part of the case. Additionally, the information about the flower sender is contained in a publicly available document and WAS NOT doxxed at all on Reddit.

These mods appear to be overstepping their bounds, possibly to the point of mod abuse.