Anyone who watched Making a Murderer will probably tell you that the hardest scenes to watch are the phone calls between Brendan Dassey and his mother Barb.
Brendan, who was just a teenager at the time, and who suffers from very limited cognitive capacity, is more like a young child than a 16-year-old.
Throughout the series we see Barb try to understand how Brendan is so easily tricked by detectives into telling them the exact story they want to hear, regardless of the truth.
In the end, it was Dassey’s testimony that was crucial in locking up the young man, as well as his uncle Steven Avery.
Dassey’s conviction was overturned on Friday after a judge ruled that he was taken advantage of in the questioning process, as he was coerced by detectives without a lawyer present. This means Brendan could be out of prison within the next 90 days. It also means that he could face a new trial.
Here’s what his mother, Barb Tadych, has had to say about this recent development:
We want to thank everyone for the love and support that you all given us. I want to make a special announcement to THANK Laura [Nirider] and Steven Drizin for making brendans [sic] release possible. And of course the federal judge.
Ms. Tadych is currently fighting for the introduction of a law that would end the practice of coercing statements out of children and teenagers. Her change.org petition reads:
I spoke with Brendan shortly after his final interrogation ended. He recanted his confession the moment he was out of reach of his interrogators.
I asked him why he told the police that he was involved [in Halbach’s murder]. Brendan responded, “They got to my head.” It was at this time that I knew my son had been wrongfully pressured by police to provide false information. I know my son. He was not capable at the time of dealing with the overwhelming stress which was put on him by those detectives.
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