Over a year ago, a federal judge overturned Brendan Dassey’s murder conviction, setting the table for the subject of the Netflix documentary series Making a Murderer to be released from prison after nearly a decade. However, that release was blocked and set off a new round of legal battles between Dassey’s attorneys and the state of Wisconsin that culminated in a three-judge federal panel ruling that Dassey’s confession was coerced. However, the state of Wisconsin appealed that decision and won, once again leaving Dassey in limbo:
The full 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reviewed Brendan Dassey’s claims that investigators tricked him into confessing that he took part in raping and killing photographer Teresa Halbach in 2005. Dassey was sentenced to life in prison in 2007 after telling detectives he helped his uncle, Steven Avery, rape and kill Halbach.
The 4-to-3 opinion conceded a ruling wasn’t obvious or easy, but said it came down to whether findings by Wisconsin state courts that Dassey wasn’t coerced into confessing were reasonable.
Judge Ilana Diamond Rovner was one of the three to vote in Dassey’s favor. She called the fact that an “impaired teenager has been sentenced to life in prison” a “profound miscarriage of justice” in her dissent.
Chief Judge Diane P. Wood, who also voted in Dassy’s favor, said that minus the confession, “the case against Dassey was almost nonexistent.”
Dassey’s attorneys did not announce whether or not they would appeal this latest decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.
(Via CBS News)