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State says appeals court erred in Dassey case

Posted at 5:48 PM, Jun 22, 2017
and last updated 2017-06-22 17:48:52-04

MILWAUKEE (AP) — A spokesman for Wisconsin’s attorney general say an appeals court erred in affirming that a confession was improperly obtained from Brendan Dassey in a criminal case featured in the Netflix series “Making a Murderer.”

A three-judge panel of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday said “no reasonable court” could have any confidence that Dassey’s confession was voluntary.

Dassey was sentenced to life in prison in 2007 in photographer Teresa Halbach’s death two years earlier. Dassey told detectives he helped his uncle, Steven Avery, rape and kill Halbach in the Avery family’s Manitowoc County salvage yard. Dassey was 16 at the time and had cognitive problems, and the lower court said detectives took advantage.

Wisconsin Department of Justice spokesman Johnny Koremenos says the office expects to seek review from the full 7th Circuit or the U.S. Supreme Court. Koremenos said the office sends condolences to the Halbach family “as they have to suffer through another attempt” by Dassey to fight the conviction.

The state could also re-try Dassey.