Dassey initially confessed to helping his uncle, Steven Avery, kill Halbach. Both Avery and Dassey were convicted in the 2005 rape and murder of Teresa Halbach.
Advertisement
Brendan Dassey, who was only 17 years old when convicted of aiding his uncle, had his conviction overturned last night. Dassey claims he had no contact with Halbach.
Knowing what we know now about the judge’s decision to overturn the conviction, a refresher on the evidence against Brendan Dassey is definitely necessary in seeing how far the case has come. The show called into question his current conviction.
He was found guilty of first-degree intentional homicide, second-degree sexual assault, and the mutilation of the corpse of the deceased.
US Magistrate William Duffin found that investigators coerced a confession using deceptive tactics.
Based on those factors, the judge said Dassey’s constitutional rights were violated and, thus, the conviction was unlawful.
Because whatever your opinion of Steven Avery, most people agreed that Brendan got railroaded.
Attorneys for Dassey did not immediately return messages seeking comment. Dassey later recanted his confession, which nevertheless played a key part in shaping the prosecution’s case. True, no single statement by the investigators, if viewed in isolation, rendered Dassey’s statement involuntary.
Avery was convicted in 1985 in the rape of jogger Penny Beerntsen on a beach near her home in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. He was serving a life sentence with a chance for early release in 2048. But what’s the evidence against Brendan Dassey in the first place? His motion is denied.
Duffin cites in the ruling research on false confessions by attorney Steven Drizin of Northwestern University’s Center on Wrongful Convictions.
The statement added that the legal team will take the appropriate next steps toward getting Dassey released as soon as possible, but didn’t specify the next legal move.
Advertisement
Dassey’s life sentence has now been overturned, and unless prosecutors decide to retry him, he will be released in 90 days. 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 then-teenager was pressured into giving a confession under controversial circumstances, and most viewers agreed that his case was terribly mishandled.
