Brendan Dassey, one of two men whose case was profiled in the highly addictive Netflix documentary “Making A Murderer,” is close to getting released in prison. The US Court of Appeals in Chicago today ruled that his confession that was used to find him guilty of assisting his uncle, Steven Avery, to kill a young woman in 2005 was coerced.
NPR said Dassey’s case was based largely on his confession, on which he stated that he did help his uncle kill Teresa Halbach. According to the three-judge panel from the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, unless the state of Wisconsin decides to retry him within 90 days or appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court, Dassey should be released.
“The writ of habeas corpus is GRANTED unless the State of Wisconsin elects to retry Dassey within 90 days of issuance of this court’s mandate, or of the Supreme Court’s final mandate,” the judges wrote.
In “Making A Murderer,” Avery was found guilty of raping and murdering Halbach, who was a 25-year-old photographer then, and Dassey was found to be an accessory to the crime.
Deadline said that back in August, US Magistrate Judge William Duffin overturned the conviction on Dassey, and ruled that the confession used to convict Dassey was involuntary.
The state of Wisconsin has since issued a statement regarding the appeals case. A Wisconsin Department of Justice spokesman said to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, “[The state is] evaluating the 2-1 decision from the court. We anticipate seeking review by the entire 7th Circuit or the United States Supreme Court and hope that today’s erroneous decision will be reversed. We continue to send our condolences to the Halbach family as they have to suffer through another attempt by Mr. Dassey to re-litigate his guilty verdict and sentence.”
