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Conviction of Making a Murderer’s Steven Avery was ‘forced’: court

Steven Avery was escorted to the Manitowoc County Courthouse for his sentencing on June 1, 2007, in Manitowoc, Wisconsin.

Steven Avery was escorted to the Manitowoc County Courthouse for his sentencing on June 1, 2007, in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. Photo: AP

The confession of a Wisconsin inmate featured in the Netflix series Making a Murderer was improperly obtained and he should be released from prison, a US appeals panel has ruled.

Brendan Dassey was sentenced to life in prison in 2007 in photographer Teresa Halbach’s death on Halloween two years earlier.

Dassey told detectives he helped his uncle, Steven Avery, rape and kill Halbach in the Avery family’s Manitowoc County salvage yard.

Avery was sentenced to life in a separate trial.

A federal magistrate judge ruled in August that investigators coerced Dassey — who was 16 years old at the time and suffered from cognitive problems — into confessing and overturned his conviction.

The state Justice Department appealed the ruling to the 7th US Circuit Court of Appeals, a move that kept Dassey, now 27, behind bars pending the outcome.

A three-judge panel on Thursday upheld the magistrate’s decision to overturn his conviction.

A spokesman for Wisconsin attorney-General Brad Schimel said the office expected to seek review by the full 7th Circuit or the US Supreme Court and hoped “today’s erroneous decision will be reversed”.

Avery and Dassey contend they were framed by police angry with Avery for suing Manitowoc County over his wrongful conviction for sexual assault.

Avery spent 18 years in prison in that case before DNA tests showed he did not commit the crime.

He is pursuing his own appeal in state court.

Their cases gained national attention in 2015 after Netflix aired Making a Murderer, a multi-part documentary looking at Halbach’s death, the ensuing investigation and trials.

The series sparked widespread conjecture about the pair’s innocence but authorities who worked on the cases insist the documentary is biased.

– AAP

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