A federal judge overturned the life sentence of Brendan Dassey, the teenager who confessed to helping his uncle, Steve Avery, in the 1995 rape and murder of Teresa Halabch.
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The documentary filmmakers behind “Making A Murderer” are rejoicing that justice has finally been done in the case of Brendan Dassey.
Dassey’s conviction was overturned Friday after a judge said in court documents obtained by ABC News that investigators’ four-hour interrogation was littered with leading statements and “false promises”.
The cases of Dassey and Avery, who were convicted in separate trials, gained worldwide attention after the December 2015 release of the Netflix series “Making A Murderer”.
January 30, 2007: A judge says defense attorneys can tell jurors that Avery was wrongfully convicted of rape and may use as evidence a vial of his blood found unsecured in the Manitowoc County courthouse.
In 2007, Dassey was sentenced to 41 years in prison for his alleged part in Halbach’s murder.
Producers missed the moment Brendan Dassey’s conviction was quashed and will have to recreate the events for the new series.
His defense team has always argued that this evidence was planted and his conviction is now under appeal.
Earl Avery says he doesn’t think Dassey will be retried because he has the support of some in the public. According to prosecutors, Avery began torturing and raping Halbach inside his home before calling Dassey, who lived next door, because “he had something to show him”. As the case stands now, Dassey would have only been eligible for parole by 2048.
On Friday, shocking news came down regarding the case behind the popular Netflix show Making a Murderer. Things turned to the better for Dassey when Judge William E. Duffin overturned Dassey’s conviction, after having found his imprisonment to be unlawful, believing the confession to be involuntary. Throughout the series, Dassey’s story changes dramatically as he undergoes a series of questionable interrogations, some of which were encouraged by his court-appointed pretrial attorney, Len Kachinsky.
“The court does not reach this conclusion lightly”, Duffin wrote. The judge found that confession was involuntary in a 91-page decision.
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Kathleen Zellner, an attorney for Avery, said in a statement that Avery was thrilled for his nephew.
