‘Making a Murderer’ Team Talk Brendan Dassey’s Overturned Conviction
The filmmaking team behind Netflix’s Making a Murderer have commented on Wisconsin prosecutors’ decision to appeal the overturned conviction of Brendan Dassey, one of the two men found guilty of the 2005 murder of Teresa Halbach. After winning four Creative Arts Emmy Awards Sunday, the series’ co-creator Moira Demos spoke to the press about Friday’s decision, Variety reports.
“As many of you know, Brendan Dassey’s conviction was overturned, and just last Friday, Wisconsin filed notice of appeal,” Demos said. “This is just part of the process. This is justice at work and we will continue to document that. It’s a very trying time for all the families involved on both sides to continue to have this unresolved and ongoing, but that’s sort of how justice works, so we’ll continue to follow it.”
Dassey’s ongoing legal battle, as well as the fate of Steven Avery, will be at the epicenter of the upcoming season of Making a Murderer, which Demos and co-director Laura Ricciardi are in the process of compiling.
“Our plans for additional episodes, the story is clearly not over,” Ricciardi said of the upcoming season. “Things are happening and we’re following those events as they unfold. As you follow things as they’re unfolding, you can’t predict the future … but that’s part of the process.”
The judge’s initial August ruling to overturn Dassey’s conviction took both the filmmakers and Dassey’s legal team by surprise. Dassey will remain behind bars on his 41 years-to-life sentence until the outcome of the appeal.
“We believe the magistrate judge’s decision that Brendan Dassey’s confession was coerced by investigators, and that no reasonable court could have concluded otherwise, is wrong on the facts and wrong on the law,” Attorney General Brad Schimel said Friday following the appeal.
“Two state courts carefully examined the evidence and properly concluded that Brendan Dassey’s confession to sexually assaulting and murdering Teresa Halbach with his uncle, Steven Avery, was voluntary, and the investigators did not use constitutionally impermissible tactics,” he added.