Appellate Court Takes Up ‘Making a Murderer’ Inmate’s Case

By Associated Press, Claire Donnelly
Brendan Dassey
In this Aug. 2, 2007 file photo, Brendan Dassey is escorted into court for his sentencing in Manitowoc, Wis. The Netflix documentary series “Making a Murderer” tells the story of a Wisconsin man wrongly convicted of sexual assault only to be accused, along with his nephew, of killing a photographer two years after being released. Steven Avery and his then 17-year-old nephew Dassey were accused of killing Teresa Halbach, a photographer who visited the Avery family salvage yard to take photos of a minivan on Halloween and was never seen alive again. Herald Times Reporter/Eric Young via AP, Pool
Brendan Dassey
In this Aug. 2, 2007 file photo, Brendan Dassey is escorted into court for his sentencing in Manitowoc, Wis. The Netflix documentary series “Making a Murderer” tells the story of a Wisconsin man wrongly convicted of sexual assault only to be accused, along with his nephew, of killing a photographer two years after being released. Steven Avery and his then 17-year-old nephew Dassey were accused of killing Teresa Halbach, a photographer who visited the Avery family salvage yard to take photos of a minivan on Halloween and was never seen alive again. Herald Times Reporter/Eric Young via AP, Pool

Appellate Court Takes Up ‘Making a Murderer’ Inmate’s Case

By Associated Press, Claire Donnelly
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CHICAGO (AP) — A federal appeals court will consider the fate of a Wisconsin inmate featured in the Netflix series “Making a Murderer.”

Brendan Dassey was sentenced to life in prison in 2007 in the death of photographer Teresa Halbach 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.

A federal magistrate judge overturned Dassey’s conviction in August. He ruled that investigators took advantage of Dassey’s youth — he was 16 at the time — and cognitive problems to coerce his confession.

The state of Wisconsin argues that detectives did nothing wrong. Dassey, now 27, has remained in prison pending the appeal.

Avery was sentenced to life in prison in a separate trial. He’s pursuing his own appeal.