Supreme Court Says 'No' To Hearing 'Making A Murderer' Case

MANITOWOC COUNTY, WI — The U.S. Supreme Court said that it will not take the case involving Brendan Dassey, who was convicted in the 2005 murder of Teresa Halbach. The story was featured in the Netflix documentary "Making a Murderer." The Supreme Court's decision means that Dassey's conviction and life sentence stand.

In a brief filed on May 10, the Wisconsin Department of Justice urged the court to not hear the case, arguing that investigators used proper interrogation techniques to question and interrogate Dassey following Halbach's murder.

"Throughout the three-hour, noncustodial interview, investigators used only standard techniques such as adopting a sympathetic tone, encouraging honesty, and challenging his story when they believed he was lying," the Wisconsin Department of Justice said in the brief. "Less than an hour in, Petitioner unexpectedly confessed to investigators that, at his uncle’s urging, he had raped the victim while she was tied up in bed and begging for mercy, and soon thereafter confessed to helping kill her and burn her body. Petitioner now asserts that investigators fed him this confession, but the only plausible source for his admissions was his guilty conscience, as investigators did not even suspect several key aspects of his confession, such as his rape of the victim."

Throughout court proceedings over the years, Dassey's lawyers have argued that his confession as a teen was coerced and should not stand. That message was reinforced today by attorney Laura Nirider, attorney for Brendan Dassey.

“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," Nirider said in a statement Monday. "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.’"

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In 2005, Dassey and his uncle, Steven Avery, were charged in Halbach's killing. She was shot twice in the head, and her bones and belongings were found burned in a barrel near Avery's trailer. Both Dassey and Avery were sentenced to life terms in 2007, convicted of first-degree intentional homicide, second-degree sexual assault, and mutilation of a corpse.

Halbach, 25, was an aspiring photographer who was hired to take photographs for Auto Trader magazine when she disappeared.

Just 16 at the time of the murder, Dassey was convicted of helping his uncle, Steven Avery, cover up the crime in a case made famous by the Netflix documentary "Making a Murderer." Dassey was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole for 41 years.

"Making a Murder" premiered on Nexflix in December 2015. The 10-episode series was filmed over a course of ten years. It covers the life of Avery as a worker at an auto salvage yard in Manitowoc. The series covers his role as well as covers the arrest, prosecution and conviction of Dassey in the murder of Halbach.

Here are recordings from Dassey's interrogation by authorities during their investigation:

Main image: 2007 file photo of Dassey/Dan Powers/The Post-Crescent, Pool, File