Dassey’s story gained global attention in December 2015 when he was the subject of Netflix documentary Making a Murderer.
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Dassey was also charged with Halbach’s murder and sentenced to life in prison. Hours after the Making A Murderer subject had his homicide conviction and 41-year prison sentence overturned, the filmmakers who brought his plight into the public eye have spoken out on the case once more.
In his decision, U.S. Magistrate Judge William Duffin was critical of investigators, Dassey’s pretrial attorney and the state courts on how they handled the case, concluding that Dassey’s constitutional rights were violated.
According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the new ruling “gives prosecutors 90 days to decide whether to retry Dassey, although an appeal could extend the proceedings”.
Dassey, then 16, confessed to authorities that he assisted his uncle in raping and killing Halbach. A spokeswoman for the state Department of Justice, which was handling the case, did not immediately return a message seeking comment. He was found not guilty of mutilating a corpse.
Avery’s current attorney Kathleen Zellner, whom he obtained in January, also posted on Twitter, writing, “Justice for Brendan as another LE fabricated confession bites the dust”.
Two years later, while he was suing Manitowoc County in Wisconsin over wrongful imprisonment, he was arrested over the death of 25-year-old photographer Teresa Halbach.
During the first season of Netflix’s extremely popular Making a Murderer, viewers watched in dismay as defendant Brendan Dassey was pummeled by the prosecution for murder and sexual assault charges. On Friday, the judge ruled that how the confession was conducted, including Dassey’s “intellectual deficits, and the absence of a supportive adult … made him more susceptible to coercive pressures”. Although, absent a successful appeal of the ruling, it is all but certain Dassey will be released from custody.
In the Netflix series, it is suggested that Dassey had been coerced into the confession by police and investigators.
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For Avery’s part, his lawyer told The Guardian that he was delighted for his nephew, and that: “We know when an unbiased court reviews all of the new evidence we have, Steven will have his conviction overturned as well”.
