Federal Appeals Court Upholds Conviction Charge of 'Making a Murderer' Subject

A federal court of appeals upheld the conviction of Brendan Dassey, one of the subjects of the Netflix documentary Making a Murderer, on Friday. The 28-year-old will remain in prison.

Last year, a federal judge overturned Dassey's conviction for his role in the murder of Teresa Halbach, ruling that his confession was coerced by police.

In June, a three-judge panel of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals backed that ruling. However, Wisconsin prosecutors appealed for a decision by the full panel of judges.

As PEOPLE reports, that panel ruled four-to-three that the confession was properly obtained by the police.

Dassey was sentenced to life in prison in 2007 for his role in the murder of Halbach. He was convicted of being party to first-degree murder, mutilation of a corpse and second-degree sexual assault. He was 16 years old at the time. He's not eligible for parole until Nov. 1, 2048.

Dassey and his uncle, Steven Avery, were the subject of Making a Murderer, Netflix's acclaimed 2015 documentary series. The film, written and directed by Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos, questioned the legal process that lead to their convictions for Halbach's murder.

In October, Avery's request for a retrial was denied. Netflix told USA Today in January that Ricciardi and Demos are working on a second season.

"Laura and Moira are (in Manitowoc) shooting regularly and working on what the right story is to tell in the next set, so we're deferring to them on when it will be ready," Cindy Holland, Netflix's VP of original content, told USA Today. "Very few people inside of Netflix actually know the details of what we're getting because we're wanting to keep it really under wraps and it is an ongoing case so we're trying to be sensitive to that."