After nearly a year of ups and downs, Brendan Dassey—the nephew of Making a Murderer's Steven Avery, who was convicted of intentional homicide in the 2005 murder of Teresa Halbach—has won a major victory in court. A federal appeals court in Chicago has upheld a lower court's ruling that overturns Dassey's conviction for Halbach's murder.
Dassey gave a videotaped confession to the murder—which he said he committed with his uncle—that he later recanted. Dassey's lawyers, as was detailed in the popular Netflix documentary Making a Murderer, argued that his confession had been coerced by police officers.
This decision could begin the process to release Dassey from prison, who has been serving a life sentence since he was 16 years old. As the court's ruling reads:
A few factors and passages from Dassey's confession support the majority's view that the confession was not voluntary. Many other factors and passages support the state courts' view that overall, the confession was voluntary. The Wisconsin Court of Appeals could have been much more thorough in its discussion, but its conclusion was within the bounds of reason. It was not contrary to or an unreasonable application of controlling Supreme Court precedent. We should reverse the district court's grant of the writ of habeas corpus.
The State of Wisconsin has 90 days from the court's order to retry Dassey.
