Defense attorneys for Wisconsin inmate and “Making a Murderer” subject Brendan Dassey have filed a response to the state’s motion to appeal his overturned conviction. State prosecutors filed a motion Monday seeking to block Dassey’s release from prison. Prosecutors said they would ask the full 7th Circuit Court of Appeals to hear Dassey’s case, after a panel of three judges ruled in favor of overturning Dassey’s conviction. “Dassey’s release pending full resolution of this appeal would harm the public interest, as he has been convicted of rape, murder, and mutilation of a corpse, thereby establishing his dangerousness to the public,” the filing said. The appeal comes after federal judges rul

The following is a statement from Professors Steven Drizin and Laura Nirider, Brendan Dassey's attorneys, on today's ruling by the Seventh Circuit: Today, the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit upheld the district court’s August 2016 decision granting Brendan Dassey’s petition for a writ of habeas corpus. Brendan has sought justice for more than a decade; and today, we find ourselves a significant step closer to achieving that justice. In a 104-page majority opinion, the Seventh Circuit affirmed the district court’s decision, agreeing that Brendan is entitled to a new trial because his confession to the rape and murder of Teresa Halbach was involuntary. Like the distri

CHICAGO — The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday, June 22nd affirmed a decision by a judge to overturn Brendan Dassey’s conviction, according to Dassey’s attorney. The three-judge panel said Dassey was coerced into confessing and should be released from prison. Dassey’s attorney, Steven Drizin, posted to Twitter Thursday indicating the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a decision by Judge Duffin — 2-1. Drizin said “This round goes to Brendan Dassey 2-1,” with Judge Hamilton dissenting. The final judgement issued by the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals says: “The decision of the district court is affirmed, with costs, in all respects. The writ of habeas corpus is granted unless the Stat

Laura Nirider was in her third year at Northwestern University’s Pritzker School of Law a decade ago when she began working on a case of a teenage boy who confessed to the rape, murder, and mutilation of a Wisconsin woman. The teen was Brendan Dassey, and he confessed to helping his uncle brutally murder 25-year-old Teresa Halbach on October 31, 2005. Dassey and Steven Avery are the subjects of the hit Netflix series Making a Murderer. Dassey was tried as an adult and convicted on April 25, 2007, a month after Avery. Dassey was going to prison; Nirider was preparing for the bar exam and landing her first job. If that wasn’t enough for her to think about think about, Professor Steve Drizin ha

The Wisconsin State Capitol - Madison, June 10th 2017 - Global awareness rally (Pics: Carla Chase & Maureen Gillis Fantasia) The grass roots movement in support of justice and freedom for Brendan Dassey and Steven Avery continues to swell in both strength and fervor worldwide. Despite 18 months having passed in a tumultuous wave of appeals and legal meanderings, June 10th bore witness to a surge of 'global awareness' rallies stretching from Brendan and Steven's home state of Wisconsin, to Philadelphia, Arizona and Las Vegas, and across the Atlantic to the UK capital, London. A two pronged public awareness attack, the rallies capitalised on this week's post-conviction notice filed by Steven A

James L. Trainum, retired Washington, D.C., homicide detective and author of the book “How the Police Generate False Confessions. (matte design) “If you plan on being arrested for a felony, you must read this book.” — Tom Jackman, The Washington Post Also, if you have an interest in fairness, justice and preventing wrongful convictions, then the new book “How the Police Generate False Confessions,” by former Washington, D.C., homicide detective James Trainum is an important read. It takes you inside the interrogation room to see how investigators extract admissions from innocent people, and how the justice system can fix this persistent problem, seen in high profile cases such as the Central

The Most Impactful Piece of Advocacy in the Fight for Brendan's Freedom "In episode 10 you might remember Bob's cross-examination of the smirking defence attorney Len Kachinsky and the snivelling defence investigator Michael O'Kelly". "What you don't know is that Bob was like a bloodhound, and he tracked Michael O'Kelly all the way across the country, and he finally found him in Idaho, he hopped on a plane, he went to a conference where O'Kelly was speaking and at the end of the conference he served him with a subpoena". "And that subpoena required Michael O'Kelly to come back to Wisconsin and bring all of his documents with him and all of his videotapes, and it was from that subpoena we got