As we reported last night, Brendan Dassey from Netflix’s Making A Murderer docuseries has had his conviction for the murder of Teresa Halbach overturned.
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Magistrate Judge William Duffin said in Friday’s ruling that investigators made false promises to Dassey by assuring him “he had nothing to worry about”.
In March 2006, Dassey told investigators he had helped his uncle rape and murder Halbach, but he later recanted his confession.
“This is right, this is justice”, Dassey’s attorney Laura Nirider told ABC News. Steven Avery and his then 17-year-old nephew Dassey were accused of killing Teresa Halbach, a photographer who visited the Avery family salvage yard to take photos of a minivan on Halloween and was never seen alive again. He says he and his brother didn’t know Dassey’s conviction was overturned until Earl Avery left the prison and checked his phone, finding multiple messages.
Nirider wasn’t the only one involved in the case now or in the past to react to the news.
The latest twist in this case means that Dassey will walk free in 90 days, as long as the state does not to attempt to retry him or an appeal is launched.
August 2, 2007: Dassey is sentenced to mandatory life in prison with a possibility of parole set for November 1, 2048.
Duffin wrote that Kachinsky’s conduct throughout the case was tactically and ethically inexcusable. Avery has filed a notice of appeal in his own case.
CNN reached out to former Calumet County District Attorney Ken Kratz, who prosecuted both cases, but didn’t receive an immediate response. On Friday, a federal judge overturned Dassey’s conviction, leaving fans of the show to wonder when will Brendan Dassey be released from prison – but they might not have to wonder for much longer.
The ruling paves the way for Steven Avery’s eventual release as his legal team, led by Kathleen Zellner, have said is imminent. Dassey, who was 16 at the time, was likely developmentally disabled, and seemed not to fully understand what he was saying in his questioning, or its implications.
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Joe Friedberg, a defense attorney in Minnesota who was not involved in the case but is familiar with it and participated in a forum on it with Avery’s first defense attorney, said he doesn’t believe the decision will have any bearing on Avery’s case.
