The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal from the Wisconsin teenager convicted of rape and murder, who was featured in the Netflix series “Making A Murderer.”
Brendan Dassey asked the Supreme Court to review his case June 3, claiming previous courts had ignored police taking advantage of his intellectual disability to coerce a confession. The court followed standard procedure and did not offer an explanation for its rejection of the case. The case now defaults to the 4-3 ruling from a federal appeals court against Dassey and his life sentence stands.
“We hope the family and friends of Ms. Halbach can find comfort in knowing this ordeal has finally come to a close,” Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel told reporters. Schimel said his office was “pleased” with the court’s decision.
Dassey was tried and convicted in Wisconsin for the 2005 murder of Teresa Halbach, a 25-year-old photographer who visited Dassey’s uncle, Steven Avery, shortly before her death. Police found Halbach’s charred remains on Avery’s property, and recovered her car in an adjacent junk yard. Avery’s DNA was identified inside the Halbach vehicle.
Investigators questioned Dassey, then 16 years old, about the crime several times between Feb. 27 and March 1, 2006. Dassey’s attorneys argue authorities exploited his intellectual deficits and vulnerability to suggestion during the interviews to procure a confession corresponding to their theory of the crime. Dassey has an IQ in the mid 70s and exhibited anti-social behaviors during the interviews, though a court has never made such a finding. (RELATED: Justices Ginsburg And Gursuch Are Trolling Each Other)
The confession was the central piece of evidence brought against Dassey in trial, as no tangible evidence connected him to Halbach’s death. An initial appeals court of three judges agreed with Dassey’s attorneys and ruled for a retrial, but the ruling was later reversed by the full appeals court.
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