Before Making A Murderer was released in 2015, Brendan Dassey's life and legal battle had been turned upside down a number of times. And since the show thrust him into the national spotlight, things have only gotten thornier. All of which is to say that when it comes to 2018 updates to Brendan Dassey's case, there's a lot of ground to cover.
According to Wisconsin Circuit Court records, Dassey was convicted of murder in 2007 for his alleged role in Teresa Halbach's 2005 death. However, as Bustle previously reported, the now-28-year-old has long claimed that he's innocent and that his confession was both false and coerced, while the Manitowoc County sheriff's department has maintained it was obtained under standard protocol. It's exactly this discrepancy that's led to numerous developments in Dassey's case over the last three years.
As reported by The New York Times, the biggest break arrived in August 2016, when federal Judge William Duffin overturned Dassey's conviction. He said he believed Dassey's confession was involuntary and gave the state 90 days to either retry him or appeal the decision; if they didn't, Dassey would be released. According to Fox 11 News, in December 2017, a federal appeals court did reverse the judge's decision, stating it believed Dassey's confession to be voluntary. This ruling upheld Dassey's conviction.
But that was hardly the end of the road for Dassey's case.
January 9, 2018
After the appeals court decision, Judge Duffin had to dismiss the case from his own court, according to Fox 11 News. That allowed Dassey's case to move forward to the U.S. Supreme Court, who then had to decide if they wanted to review the case.
May 10, 2018
According to AZ Central, the Wisconsin Department of Justice filed a 45-page brief requesting that the Supreme Court not review Dassey's appeal. The state said they believed Dassey's confession to be voluntary and that the High Court should not further review the matter.
June 14, 2018
Another Fox 11 News article reported that the Supreme Court began discussing whether or not to review Dassey's case. For it to move forward, four of the nine sitting Supreme Court justices would have had to agree to review it. Also per Fox 11, Dassey had only a small chance of success, since the Supreme Court reviews only a fraction of the cases submitted to it.
June 25, 2018
As reported by The New York Times, the Supreme Court declined to review Dassey's appeal, once again upholding his conviction.
And that's pretty much stalled Dassey's case for now. One of his lawyers, Laura Nirider, told the Times that they will "continue to fight to free Dassey," but did not specify any next steps to be taken.
Until and unless any further appeals are made, Dassey will continue to serve out out his life sentence in the Columbia Correctional Institution in Wisconsin, according to his inmate records. The Wisconsin Circuit Court records state that he will be eligible for parole on Nov. 1, 2048. By then, he'll be 59.
