Photo: Wisconsin Department of Corrections
Nearly 250 people — including legal experts, politicians, psychologists and falsely convicted former inmates —signed an open letterto Wisconsin’s governor requesting clemency forBrendan Dassey, whose murder conviction was featured in the 2015 Netflix docuseriesMaking a Murderer.
Dassey, 30, is serving a life sentence for first-degree intentional homicide, mutilation of a corpse and sexual assault in connection with 25-year-old Teresa Halbach’s death in 2005.
Making a Murderercast a critical light on theconvictions of both Dassey and his uncle Steven Avery. Dassey’s confession to law enforcement — during which the then-16-year-old confessed to helping Avery rape and kill Halbach — is the most debated aspect of the investigation.
Dassey, who according to his lawyers has intellectual disabilities, later recanted the confession, claiming it had been coerced. His attorneys have argued his interrogators made false promises of leniency and fed him facts about the killing that he didn’t actually know.
Halbach’s family has criticized the seriesas one-sided and believes theright men are in prison.
Eric Young, Pool/AP
The advocates’ letter to Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers states, “We call upon you, Governor Evers, to use your sovereign power of executive clemency, whether in the form of a pardon or a commutation, to end the incarceration of Brendan Dassey.”
Halbach Family/Herald Times Reporter/AP Photo
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Among those to sign the letter were Sister Helen Prejean, whose anti-death penalty work was featured in theSean Pennfilm,Dead Man Walking, and Rosie Phillips Davis, President of the American Psychological Association.
Advocates have created an online petition atwww.bringbrendanhome.orgto support Dassey’s clemency request.
Dassey remains in prisondespite years of appeals. Wisconsin’s court of appeals upheld Dassey’s conviction, but a federal magistrate and a panel of the U.S. court of appeals ruled in his favor. However, the full appeals court overturned that panel’s decision, and the Supreme Court declined to hear Dassey’s argument.
The Washington Postreportsthat after the Supreme Court’s decision, then-Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel said: “We hope the family and friends of Ms. Halbach can find comfort in knowing this ordeal has finally come to a close.”
source: people.com
