Dassey and his uncle, Steven Avery, were convicted in the 2005 murder of photographer Teresa Halbach almost a decade ago.
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She was killed after she went to the Avery family auto salvage yard to photograph some vehicles.
In court documents obtained by ABC News, a judge ruled that Dassey’s confession was obtained by investigators giving the then 16-year-old “false promises”.
Dassey’s case rose to fame after the Netflix documentary Making a Murderer showcased flaws in the case against him and his uncle Steven Avery. We are thankful and proud that a federal court fulfilled its fundamental role for Brendan Dassey today.
Online petitions have circulated online since the airing of the Avery documentary, Making a Murderer, on Netflix in December 2015.
He was sentenced to life with no parole for 41 years following the guilty verdict, but after today’s judicial ruling he is set to be released from jail in the next 90 days.
U.S. Magistrate Judge William Duffin’s ruling said that investigators made false promises to Brendan Dassey by assuring him “he had nothing to worry about”. The 10-part series followed Avery’s first conviction which landed him in prison for 18 years until he was exonerated.
Brendan Dassey’s uncle, Steven Avery, was also convicted in the murder of Teresa Halbach. The Wisconsin judge found on Friday that Dassey’s confession in the investigation into Halbach’s murder was involuntary. He eventually settled for $400,000 because he needed the funds to support his defense in the Halbach murder case – you can put two and two together to figure out where the controversy lies. Both Avery and Dassey are serving separate life sentences.
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Avery remains convicted of murder, but continues to appeal that conviction from prison. He filed a $36 million federal lawsuit against the county, its former sheriff and district attorney in 2004. Critics of Making a Murderer state that integral evidence was left out of the docuseries to help viewers sympathize more with Avery and Dassey.
