Attorneys gave oral arguments before a three-judge panel Tuesday as they consider whether police coerced or unfairly tricked Brendan Dassey, pictured, into confessing to a role in the rape, murder and burning of Teresa Halbach in 2005. Dassey and his uncle, Steven Avery, are each currently serving life sentences for the crime. Photo by
WTMJ-TV
Feb. 14 (UPI) -- More than six months after a judge threw out his conviction for a 2005 murder, a federal appeals court in Chicago heard attorneys argue on Tuesday whether or not Brendan Dassey's conviction and life sentence for the crime should be reinstated.
Attorneys started oral arguments before a three-judge panel in the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday to determine whether Dassey's confession in the 2005 killing of Teresa Halbach was coerced and he has served time for a crime he did not commit.
Dassey's case garnered national attention after he was featured on the Netflix series Making a Murderer, leading to a magistrate judge in Milwaukee overturning the 2007 conviction because the confession used for his conviction was involuntary and coerced from a 16-year-old with limited mental capacity.
Dassey and his uncle, Steven Avery, were convicted in 2007 of raping, murdering and then burning the body of Teresa Halbach, at least partially on the strength of a confession given to police by Dassey. For years, however, advocates have suggested that Dassey, who was 16 and has an IQ of 73, did not willingly confess to the crime.
Luke Berg, Wisconsin's deputy solicitor general, attempted to make the state's case that Dassey's confession was not forced and that police did not lie or mislead the 16-year-old to fool him into confessing to the crime.
"I want you to imagine it is not an average person, but a 16-year-old with a very, very low IQ, who is extremely suggestible," Appellate Court Judge Ilana Rovner asked Berg. "And I would like you very much to concentrate on the 'suggestible.'"
Rovner asked whether phrases such as "let's get it all out today and then it's all over," "the truth will set you free" and "I'm not a cop right now" could have been misleading to Dassey, who may have thought he would really be permitted to leave after being questioned or that the officers questioning him were not actually officers.
Judge David Hamilton, however, said he did not detect anything misleading or coercive on video of Dassey's interrogation, and suggested techniques used in the questioning were meant for "calling him out" on inconsistent parts of his story.
Hamilton did not see, he said, Dassey's will being "overbore" despite Dassey's lawyer suggesting police were responsible for a "drumbeat of promises" that fooled her client into confessing to the murder.
While there is no timetable for a ruling, and some say a decision may take months, if judges decide Dassey's conviction was improper, the state will still need to decide if Dassey will again face trial for Halbach's death.
