A federal court in Wisconsin on Friday overturned the conviction of a man found guilty of helping his uncle kill Teresa Halbach in a case profiled in the Netflix documentary Making a Murderer.
The U.S. District Court in Milwaukee overturned Brendan Dasseys conviction and ordered him freed within 90 days unless prosecutors decide to retry him. A spokeswoman for the state Department of Justice, which was handling the case, did not immediately return a message seeking comment.
Magistrate Judge William Duffin said in Fridays ruling that investigators made false promises to Dassey by assuring him he had nothing to worry about.
These repeated false promises, when considered in conjunction with all relevant factors, most especially Dasseys age, intellectual deficits, and the absence of a supportive adult, rendered Dasseys confession involuntary under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments, Duffin wrote. The ruling comes after Dasseys appeal was rejected by state courts.
Dassey confessed to helping his uncle Steven Avery carry out the rape and murder of Halbach, but attorneys argued that his constitutional rights were violated throughout the investigation.
Dassey was 16 when Halbach was killed in 2005 after she went to the Avery family auto salvage yard to photograph some vehicles.
Avery was tried and convicted separately in the homicide. Both Avery and Dassey are serving separate life sentences.
Dasseys case burst into the publics consciousness with the popularity of the Making a Murderer documentary that debuted in December.
Attorneys for Dassey did not immediately return messages seeking comment.
