Big developments...
Last month,
the conviction of Brendan Dassey, one of two men convicted of murder in the Netflix documentary series Making a Murderer, was overturned by a federal judge in Milwaukie.
In a 91-page decision, federal Magistrate William Duffin found that investigators made a number of false promises to Dassey during a series of interrogations.
"These repeated false promises, when considered in conjunction with all relevant factors, most especially Dassey’s age, intellectual deficits, and the absence of a supportive adult, rendered Dassey’s confession involuntary under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments," Duffin wrote.
“The Wisconsin Court of Appeals’ decision to the contrary was an unreasonable application of clearly established federal law.”
But on Friday, Brad Schimel, the attorney general for Wisconsin appealed the decision which means that Brendan Dassey will have to remain in prison pending the outcome.
In a statement released on Friday, Schimel said to the
New York Times:
"We believe the magistrate judge’s decision that Brendan Dassey’s confession was coerced by investigators, and that no reasonable court could have concluded otherwise, is wrong on the facts and wrong on the law.
"Two state courts carefully examined the evidence and properly concluded that Brendan Dassey’s confession to sexually assaulting and murdering Teresa Halbach with his uncle, Steven Avery, was voluntary, and the investigators did not use constitutionally impermissible tactics.”
