The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to take the case of Brendan Dassey, whose confession to rape and murder charges as a teenager was featured in the Netflix documentary, "Making a Murderer," The Washington Post reported.
Dassey, now in his late 20s, is serving a life sentence after he was convicted in 2007, along with his uncle, Steven Avery, for the 2005 rape and murder of photographer Teresa Halbach in Manitowoc County, Wisconsin. Halbach's burned body was found on Avery's property, the Post reported. Dassey was 16 at the time of the murder, Variety reported.
Dassey's attorneys claimed his confession to police was coerced, Variety reported. He was interrogated four times over a 48-hour period, the Post reported.
The Supreme Court gave no reason for denying the petition made by Dassey's attorney's in the case of Dassey v. Dittmann.
The Wisconsin Court of Appeals upheld Dassey's conviction, ruling that the interrogations were not coercive. Dassey was read his rights and his mother consented to the interview. He did not have an attorney present when he was interviewed, the Post reported.
Dassey appealed the Wisconsin decision to federal court, and a panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit in Chicago upheld the decision on a 2-1 vote. However, the full appeals court overturned the panel's ruling by a 4-3 vote in December, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported, noting that Dassey's confession was voluntary.
Under federal law, the Supreme Court usually defers to decisions made by lower courts and intervenes only if the decision by the state court was unreasonable, the Post reported.
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