The subject of Netflix‘s The Crash, Mackenzie Shirilla, formally requested that her 2023 murder convictions be overturned due to her rights being violated during her original trial.
Us Weekly confirmed that her legal team recently filed a writ of habeas corpus in federal court. They argued that Mackenzie’s rights were violated during her original trial after “key evidence in her defense was allegedly excluded improperly.”
Netflix’s 2026 documentary explored the July 2022 car crash that killed Mackenzie’s boyfriend Dominic Russo and high school friend Davion Flanagan. Mackenzie was found guilty of purposefully driving her Toyota Camry over 100 mph into a brick wall. She was the only one to survive.
Mackenzie was convicted in a 2023 bench trial of 12 felony charges, including murder. She was ordered to serve two concurrent sentences of 15 years to life imprisonment. She has always maintained her innocence, with her lawyers suggesting at trial that the crash may have been caused by a medical episode. Mackenzie recently hired a new team of lawyers to pursue her appeal.
Her new legal team has nevertheless continued to pursue an appeal effort based around their contention that relevant evidence was wrongfully excluded at trial. It is being argued that there was insufficient evidence to prove probable cause in Mackenzie’s conviction. Mackenzie’s lawyers are arguing that she had ineffective counsel at trial.
Mackenzie’s rights were allegedly violated when her case was improperly transferred from juvenile court to adult court despite her status as a minor at the time. Following her 2023 conviction, Shirilla has served her sentence at the Ohio Reformatory for Women prison in Marysville, Ohio.
