Brendan Dassey Of ‘Making A Murderer’ Took His Case To The Supreme Court; It Didn’t Go Well

Poor, simple-minded Brendan Dassey of Making A Murderer fame is never going to get to live out his dream of attending WrestleMania.

That’s because Dassey just got jerked around again by the justice system as his case was refused on Monday by the United States Supreme Court.

After having his weak conviction overturned way back in August of 2016, and officially getting an invite to WrestleMania, his case was appealed by the Wisconsin Attorney General, had to wait in prison until November 2016 for a judge to order his release, only to have the Federal Court reverse everything and uphold his conviction of December of that year and send him back to the slammer.

Now, after having the Supreme Court decline to take up his case, Dassey is seriously running out of options.

Dassey, who was 16-years-old when he was interrogated and confessed in 2005, is serving a life sentence after being convicted along with his uncle, Steven Avery, for rape and murder of Teresa Halbach.

Laura Nirider, one of Dassey’s attorneys, issued a statement about Dassey’s latest legal setback, insisting that her client “confessed to a crime he did not commit.”

“We will continue to fight to free Brendan Dassey. Brendan was a sixteen-year old with intellectual and social disabilities when he confessed to a crime he did not commit. The video of Brendan’s interrogation shows a confused boy who was manipulated by experienced police officers into accepting their story of how the murder of Teresa Halbach happened. These officers repeatedly assured him that everything would be ‘okay’ if he just told them what they wanted to hear and then fed him facts so that Brendan’s ‘confession’ fit their theory of the crime. By the end of the interrogation, Brendan was so confused that he actually thought he was going to return to school after confessing to murder. Nonetheless, he was convicted and sentenced to life in prison on the basis of this ‘confession.’

Unfortunately, Brendan isn’t alone. Over the past twenty years, extensive empirical and psychological research has shown that children under 18 are between three and four times more likely to falsely confess than adults – and yet the criminal justice system fails many of them. It’s up to the courts to put an end to this. Now, more than ever, courts around the country must update their understandings of coercion in light of the newly understood problem of false confessions. The Center on Wrongful Convictions of Youth is dedicated to continuing this effort, along with our justice-minded partners in both law enforcement and defense-oriented communities across the globe.

We would like to extend sincere gratitude to the dozens of former prosecutors, national law enforcement trainers, leading psychological experts, innocence projects, juvenile justice organizations, and law professors who filed amicus briefs in this case and who, along with our legal team, will continue to fight for Brendan and the many other children who have been wrongfully convicted due to the use of coercive interrogation tactics.”

Jerry Buting, one of Steven Avery’s attorneys during the filming of Making A Murderer tweeted, “SCOTUS DENIED review of Brendan’s case. Passed on a huge opportunity to improve justice, especially for juveniles.”

Avery’s current attorney, Kathleen Zellner also weighed in on social media.

https://twitter.com/ZellnerLaw/status/1006854820987330560

All I can say at this point is, where’s Dean Strang when you need him?

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