Steven Avery is an American man from Manitowoc County, Wisconsin, who was convicted of rape and attempted murder in 1985, at the age of 22, and served 18 years of a 32-year sentence before DNA testing exonerated him. After his release from prison in 2003, Avery filed a $36-million civil lawsuit against Manitowoc County, its sheriff, and its district attorney. In November 2005, while his civil suit was pending, he was charged and later convicted of the murder of a Wisconsin photographer and sentenced to life imprisonment without possibility of parole. Although the conviction was upheld by higher courts, a new series of appeal motions was filed in January 2016.