Brendan Dassey, the Wisconsin teen whose trial played a key role in the Netflix documentary series "Making a Murderer," had his murder conviction thrown out by a federal judge.

Under police interrogation, Dassey implicated himself and his uncle, Steven Avery, in the 2005 killing of photographer Teresa Halbach; he later recanted that confession. He's currently serving a life sentence with parole eligibility in 2048.

On Friday, a federal judge ruled investigators made false promises and took advantage of Dassey's age and intellectual deficiencies to unfairly coerce a confession. Dassey was ordered to be released from prison within 90 days, unless the state files to retry him.

Dassey's current appeal was filed before "Making a Murderer" first aired, but the series has led to increased public scrutiny of the case as well as a swell of public support for Dassey and Avery.

The state hasn't indicated whether it will retry Dassey's case. Avery is currently appealing his conviction, too.

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In 2022, Georgia Power projected its winter peak electricity demand would grow by about 400 megawatts by 2031. Since then, Georgia has experienced a boom of data centers, which require a large load of electricty to run, and Georgia Power's recent forecast shows peak demand growing by 20 times the 400-megawatt estimate from just three years ago. (Illustration by Philip Robibero/AJC)

Credit: Illustration: Philip Robibero / AJC