Earlier this summer, Steven Avery’s nephew, Brendan Dassey – who became a household name after the Netflix documentary chronicled the arrest and conviction of both men in the murder of Teresa Halbach – had his conviction overturned.
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The murder trial was documented by by Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos in a hit-making 10 part Netflix series, as they followed and explored the story of Steven Avery.
Attorney General Brad Schimel said Friday that the state has filed a notice of appeal in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin.
Dassey, now 26, was sentenced to life in prison in 2007 for allegedly participating in the killing of photographer Teresa Halbach in October 2005 along with his uncle Steven Avery, 54. The judge who overturned his conviction ordered Dassey would be released within 90 days unless prosecutors appealed or retried his case.
Netflix is now in production on a second season of “Making a Murderer”. In mid-August, a judge wrote that Dassey’s confession for his involvement in Halbach’s murder was obtained under unethical conditions-something his defense had long maintained.
In August, a federal magistrate ordered Dassey to be freed within 90 days unless prosecutors made a decision to try him for the murder again.
We believe the magistrate judge’s decision that Brendan Dassey’s confession was coerced by investigators, and that no reasonable court could have concluded otherwise, is wrong on the facts and wrong on the law.
Avery is in the process of appealing his conviction.
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Schimel also stated that the Halbach family had been notified of the state’s appeal and fully supports its decision.
