Brendan Dassey. Wisconsin Court System
The State of Wisconsin Department of Justice is appealing a federal magistrate’s decision that overturned the conviction of Making a Murderer‘s Brendan Dassey.
“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,” said Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel in a news release on September 9. “Two state courts carefully examined the evidence and properly concluded that Brendan Dassey’s confession to sexually assaulting and murdering Teresa Halbach with his uncle, Steven Avery, was voluntary, and the investigators did not use constitutionally impermissible tactics.”
The magistrate had given the state 90 days to decide whether to appeal the ruling or Dassey would be freed. At the time he was convicted, Dassey was the teenage nephew of Steven Avery, the Manitowoc County man who was the subject of the Netflix docuseries that achieved international acclaim. Avery had been wrongfully convicted of sexual assault previously in the same county, a case that was overturned, before he and Dassey were convicted in the murder of photographer Teresa Halbach, who had come to the Avery family junkyard to take pictures of a van.
Read the State of Wisconsin’s notice of appeal filed on September 9 here:
Schimel wrote in a press release that the State of Wisconsin will appeal the magistrate’s decision to the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.
You can read the state’s news release here.
“Per the magistrate’s decision, the Court’s order is stayed pending the outcome of the appeal,” said the AG’s press release.
The release added: “The Halbach family has been notified of the appeal and fully supports the State’s decision to seek justice on behalf of their daughter.”
Learn more about the evidence against Dassey here:
