There’s big news coming out of Chicago today, as one of the stars of Making A Murderer is moving closer to being a free man.
A U.S. Court of Appeals has ruled that Brendan Dassey should be released from prison after backing a lower court’s ruling that his murder confession was in fact coerced, according to a report by Deadline.
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In 2007, Dassey was sentenced to prison in Wisconsin for his alleged involvement in the 2005 death of Teresa Halbac, a 25-year-old photographer.
Steven Avery, his uncle, was found guilty of Halbac’s murder, as documented in the Netflix crime-documentary.
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In August of last year, William Duffin, a U.S. Magistrate Judge, overturned Dassey’s conviction, ruling that the court found his confession was involuntarily given.
Now, a three-judge panel in the U.S Court of Appeals in the Seventh Circuit supported judge Duffin’s ruling and said Dassey should be freed or retried back in Wisconsin within 90 days.
The judges wrote, “The writ of habeas corpus is GRANTED unless the State of Wisconsin elects to retry Dassey within 90 days of issuance of this court’s mandate, or of the Supreme Court’s final mandate.”
A spokesman for the Wisconsin Department of Justice said that it is “evaluating the 2-1 decision from the court. We anticipate seeking review by the entire 7th Circuit or the United States Supreme Court and hope that today’s erroneous decision will be reversed. We continue to send our condolences to the Halbach family as they have to suffer through another attempt by Mr. Dassey to re-litigate his guilty verdict and sentence.”
There’s still a long road ahead for Dassey but this ruling does bode well for his case.
More: ‘Making A Murderer’ Subject Steven Avery Begged Ken Kratz To Represent Him
