Fans of Netflix favourite Making a Murderer will already be pretty familiar with the uncertainty that surrounded Brendan Dassey’s four hour long confession tape. If not, we've got a super handy article that'll give you some background.
But in a potentially life-changing turn of events for one of the world’s most talked about murder cases, a federal judge has now overturned Brendan’s conviction for the murder of Theresa Halbach. And unless the state initiates a retrial, he could walk free in 90 days time.
Yesterday the court ruled that Brendan’s confession to helping his uncle Steven Avery allegedly commit rape and murder was actually a violation of his rights.
Brendan reportedly has an ID of around 70 and ‘reads at a 4th grade (year 5) level’, and in his ruling Judge William E. Duffin argued: ‘Dassey’s borderline to below average intellectual ability likely made him more susceptible to coercive pressures than a peer of higher intellect.’
At the age of 16, Brendan was sentenced to life without parole in 2007 on homicide and sexual assault charges. Judge Duffin said that investigators made ‘false promises’ to Brendan which, when weighed up alongside factors like his ‘age, intellectual deficits and the absence of a supportive adult, rendered Dassey’s confession involuntary under the Fifth and 14th Amendments’.
According to the US Constitution, the Fifth Amendment guarantees the right to a fair trial, while the 14th guarantees equal treatment before the law.
Making a Murderer directors Laura Ricciardi and Moria Demos have of course heard about the ruling, and described it as ‘a major development for the subjects in our story and this recent news shows the criminal justice system at work’, reports DigitalSpy.
They added: ‘As we have done for the past 10 years, we will continue to document the story as it unfolds, and follow it wherever it may lead.’
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.