By Charlie Jordin
Brendan Dassey, who was partly the subject of the 2015 Netflix documentary Making a Murderer, will be released from jail in the next 90 days after a judge in the US overturned his conviction.
Convicted of the murder of photographer Teresa Hallbach in 2007, he had consistently claimed to be innocent, saying that he was pressurised by the police into making a false confession.
Police believed that Dassey and his uncle, Steven Avery, sexually assaulted Hallbach before murdering her and disposing of the body. Teresa’s charred remains were found in Avery’s car salvage yard.
The documentary created an uproar on social media with many believing Dassey, as well as Steven Avery, the main subject of the series, to be innocent. Avery had been wrongfully imprisoned for 18 years for sexual assault prior to the 2005 conviction; many believe that there had been a conspiracy to put Avery behind bars again.
The documentary helped change the perception of Dassey, who has severe learning difficulties, revealing the manipulative techniques the police used and showing he was completely unaware of the trouble he was in.
Dassey will be released unless a motion is put forward to retry him. Steven Avery is still serving his life sentence. In the meantime, a new series of Making a Murderer has been announced, detailing Dassey’s release and Avery’s pursuit to prove his innocence.
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