Brendan Dassey to remain in jail pending appeal, court rules

CHICAGO, Nov. 17 (UPI) -- Brendan Dassey will have to stay behind bars while the legal repercussions of his overturned conviction play out in court, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit granted an emergency request filed by Wisconsin prosecutors on Wednesday, which asked the appellate court to block a lower court judge's order to have Dassey sprung by Friday evening.

"The appellant's motion to stay is granted. The district court's order releasing appellee Brendan Dassey is stayed pending resolution of this appeal," the decision states.

"We are disappointed more than words can say. The fight goes on," the Center from Wrongful Convictions of Youth, which is assisting Dassey in his case, said in a statement on its website Thursday.

A family spokesperson and cousin of Dassey's reacted on social media, saying, "This is just BS & words can't express what we are feeling."

The move is the latest in the case that began a decade ago with Dassey's conviction for assisting his uncle in the murder, rape and mutilation of 25-year-old photographer Teresa Halbach. The uncle, Steven Avery, is serving a life sentence.

Dassey was also given a life sentence, but federal magistrate judge William Duffin ordered in August that his conviction be overturned -- on the basis that his confession in custody was "involuntary in a constitutional sense." Dassey's attorneys also claim he was denied a competent legal defense at trial in 2007. On Monday, Duffin ordered him released from prison by Friday at 8 p.m. CST.

Thursday's ruling, though, blocks Duffin's release order and will keep Dassey in prison -- at least until prosecutors dismiss the case or fail in their appeal. If Dassey's conviction is reinstated, he will resume serving his sentence at the Columbia Correctional Institution in Portage, Wis.

It's unknown how long the appeals process might take.

Dassey, who was a teenager at the time of the 2005 killing, is the subject of a Netflix documentary series, Making a Murderer.