DUE PROCESS

Appellate Court Takes Up ‘Making a Murderer’ Case

State looking to reinstate “Making a Murderer” figure’s conviction.

A federal appeals court in Chicago on Tuesday will consider the fate of Brendan Dassey, the Wisconsin man made famous by the Netflix series Making a Murderer. Dassey’s conviction was overturned in August by a federal magistrate judge, who ruled that investigators in the 2005 murder of auto-sales photographer Teresa Halbach took advantage of his young age and cognitive disabilities. At the time, Dassey told detectives he helped his uncle rape and kill Halbach; a video of the confession appeared in the documentary, leading to accusations of a forced confession. He was sentenced to life in prison in 2007. Dassey, now 27, and he remains in prison pending the appeal and subsequent judgment. His uncle Steven Avery, who was sentenced to life in prison in a separate trial, is pursuing another appeal in his case.