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23rd Jun 2017

Federal judges rule that Making A Murderer defendant’s confession was coerced

Rory Cashin

Brendan Dassey

Not since the O.J. Simpson trial have more people been entirely wrapped up in a murder case.

After 99.9% of the world’s population watched Making A Murderer, most viewers came to the conclusion that either (A) Brendan Dassey was innocent, or (B) Brendan Dassey was guilty, but there wasn’t enough evidence to convict him of the murder of Teresa Halbach, and it looks like the federal judges in the U.S. came to the same conclusion.

Last summer, we reported that the conviction ruling of Brendan Dassey was to be overturned, but in the months that followed, appeal after appeal arrived which saw Dassey remain in jail for a further ten months.

This week, three federal judges were assigned the appeal case, and on a 2 to 1 ruling, they found in favour of Dassey’s conviction to be overruled, having found his confession to have been coerced by investigators.

The ruling backed up the decision made by Federal Magistrate William Duffin last summer, which stated that false promises were made in the interrogation process, and that these were a violation of Dassey’s constitutional rights.

However, this may still not be the end for Brendan Dassey.

A spokesperson for Wisconsin Attorney said: “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.”

The state of Wisconsin have a 90-day window to have the case re-tried, or the case can be re-appealed as far as the U.S. Supreme court.

Meanwhile, Brendan Dassey’s uncle and Making A Murderer co-star Steven Avery was also convicted in Halbach’s murder, and remains in prison, despite his lawyer claiming to know who really killed Teresa Maybach.

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