Prosecutors: ‘Making a Murderer’ inmate’s confession legal
MADISON, Wis. — A Wisconsin inmate featured in the Netflix series “Making a Murderer” has no basis for his claims that his confession wasn’t voluntary and shouldn’t be released from prison as a judge has ordered, state attorneys argued in a court filing.
Brendan Dassey, now 27, was sentenced to life in prison in 2007 in the death of photographer Teresa Halbach two years earlier. He told detectives he helped his uncle, Steven Avery, rape and kill Halbach in the Avery family’s Manitowoc County salvage yard.
A federal magistrate judge overturned Dassey’s conviction in August, ruling investigators coerced Dassey into confessing. The judge agreed with Dassey’s arguments that detectives promised him leniency and took advantage of his cognitive problems and youth. Dassey was 16 years old at the time of the interrogation.
The state Justice Department has appealed the judge’s ruling to the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. A team of attorneys from the state Justice Department, including Attorney General Brad Schimel, Solicitor General Misha Tseytlin and Deputy Solicitor General Luke Berg, argued in brief filed Wednesday that Dassey’s claims have no grounds.