‘Making a Murderer’ Turns 10: What’s the Latest on Steven Avery & Brendan Dassey?
Ten years ago, Netflix viewers got their first look at Making a Murderer, a docuseries following the conviction and exoneration of Steven Avery on one crime and his conviction on another crime. The Emmy-winning series debuted on December 18, 2015, and ran for two acclaimed seasons.
In case you missed the press coverage at the time, Avery served 18 years out of a 32-year sentence after being wrongfully convicted of sexual assault at a 1985 jury trial, per the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. After DNA evidence exonerated him, Avery was freed from prison in 2003. Just over two years later, however, Avery was arrested and charged with the murder of Teresa Halbach, a 25-year-old freelance photographer who disappeared after heading to the Avery family’s auto salvage yard in Manitowoc County, Wisconsin.
So what’s the latest on Avery, now 63, and Dassey, now 36?
Both Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey are serving life sentences for the killing of Theresa Halbach.
Prosecutors accused Avery of Halbach’s murder, pointing to her car being found hidden in his family’s salvage yard with droplets of his blood inside, a bullet fragment with Halbach’s DNA in his garage, bone fragments from a woman’s body in a burn pit, and remnants of her camera and cell phone in a burn barrel.
Plus, Avery’s nephew Brendan Dassey, then 16, confessed that he had sexually assaulted Halbach on orders from Avery and that he had assisted him in killing her and burning her body. Dassey later recanted his confession, and his attorneys contended that he had intellectual challenges and questioned why law enforcement allowed him to be interrogated without a parent or attorney in attendance.
As for Avery, he maintained his innocence in the case, and his attorneys argued he might have been framed by a law enforcement system he had sued for his wrongful conviction. In 2007, Avery and Dassey were found guilty of being a party to first-degree intentional homicide, sexual assault, corpse mutilation, and the men were sentenced to life in prison, per USA Today.
Avery is still in prison and seeking a federal appeal.
Now, 10 years after Making a Murderer’s debut and 18 years after his sentencing, Avery is still trying to get his conviction overturned. According to the Journal Sentinel, his motions for relief have been denied at both the circuit court and appellate court level, and this May, the Wisconsin Supreme Court declined to review his case.
Kathleen Zellner, Avery’s appeal attorney, said at the time that an appeal in federal court was the next step. “The average time to undo a wrongful conviction in the United States is 15 years, but many cases have spanned decades with dozens of motions being filed before an individual is freed,” she wrote on social media, per WLUK. “Two things are certain at this point: (1) Steven Avery will never give up on proving his actual innocence. (2) Steven Avery’s legal team is more dedicated to winning his freedom than ever before.”
Avery spoke out about his situation this March in a letter to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, one that his legal team did not write or advise him to file. “The criminal justice system is broken, and it has to be fixed, and this is the time to fix it and get it right,” he wrote, according to the Appleton Post-Crescent. “Because I’m a victim of a setup, and it has to be fixed now.”
Wisconsin Department of Corrections records show Avery is serving his sentence at the medium-security Fox Lake Correctional Institution in Fox Lake, Wisconsin — a facility at which he spent part of his imprisonment on the 1985 wrongful conviction — as of the time of this writing.
Dassey is also behind bars but may be eligible for supervised release in 2048.
Dassey’s conviction was overturned in 2016, and the following year, that decision was upheld by a three-judge panel in the Seventh District Court of Appeals, per WTTW. The Wisconsin Department of Justice challenged that ruling, however, and when the full seven-member appeals court reviewed the case, they voted 4-3 to uphold the conviction.
Then in 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear Dassey’s appeal, and in 2019, Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers declined to consider a pardon or a commutation of Dassey’s sentence, according to a letter posted to X by reporter Patrick Marley.
Dassey may be eligible for release on extended supervision in 2048, when he will be around 59 years old, according to the Journal Sentinel.
In 2019, Dassey was transferred from the maximum-security Columbia Correctional Institution in Portage, Wisconsin, to the medium-security Oshkosh Correctional Institution in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, according to the Associated Press. Laura Nirider, an attorney for Dassey, said he had earned the transfer because of good behavior. Records show Dassey is still at the Oshkosh facility as of the time of this writing.
Making a Murderer, Netflix
Conversation22 Comments
Please read the TV Insider Community Guidelines.
Register or sign in to join the conversation.
-
G
I dont think he is guilty, I have watched the entire trial on Netflix and cant believe he was found guilty.
34
-
C
Let me say first how sorry I am to the Holbach family! You have been snowed too! Theresa was killed and used to get back at Steven Avery!! I watched “Making A Murderer” on Netflix in its entirety! I’ll be quite honest, Steven Avery was wrongly accused the first time and the second time he was framed!! Brenden Dassey was drilled, fed information so that he said literally whatever those detectives said just to make them stop drilling him and they did tell him that if he told them what he did that he wouldn’t have to worry about it anymore and he could go home! That was in the interrogation video!!! Dassey tried to tell them the truth, that he nor Steven did anything to Theresa Halbach but they weren’t satisfied with that! They pushed him until he agreed with what they said happened. Every single officer, detective, witnesses, Expert Witnesses and the DA lied about something in the entire trial. The most ridiculous trial I have ever seen!! The lies were so obvious too!! It was so evident that Steven was being framed due to the lack of evidence supplied by the State! They screwed up twice! And oh my gosh that DA kept running his mouth when he was a piece of crap himself!! He had NO ROOM to be putting anybody down. I wish someone would have put him in his place and called him out for the things he had been caught doing!! He is a creep! I pray that they find who really killed Theresa Holbach! And free Steven Avery and Brenden Dassey!
26
-
M
What happened to Theresa and her grieving family is definitely terrible. My sincere heartfelt condolences to them. I do hope that the actual killer is found .
I do not for a second believe that Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey had anything to do with this gruesome murder. Steven's former lawyers worked very very hard but came up short. The meticulous efforts of Kathleen Zellner and her team reveal so much more. The details of the findings......
Police Officer Colbern's action of keeping silent to the public and media after being told by a civilian and therefore knowing about Teresa's car being spotted on the road and NOT ON STEVEN AVERY'S SALVAGE YARD. He definitely informed his peers and seniors in the police department and it was done.They sneaked the car onto Steven's property. They then worked viciously to GET STEVEN. They hate him, he showed them up with the wrongful conviction, they had the 36 million on their minds..... REVENGE.These are MOTIVES for their actions. Then they saw the OPPORTUNITY. Though it was announced that that particular police department would not be a part of the investigation, they were there several times. Surprisingly, no one really took that seriously.They did plant evidence. The key, the blood in the car, the placing of the car onto the property, the shifting of the bones onto the property.They did it all. People who helped them were aware of their hatred for the Averys. Bobby, Scot, the roommate and ex-boyfriend,are some of those people.
16
-
D
The brother is her killer
1
-
-
M
This how they been doin black people since they started the prison system in America. Especially with black children. Free those men because everybody even the court that’s been keeping them in prison knows that the Avery’s were innocent
11
-
K
Absoluty not guilty,big complot- lenk
10
-
S
Seems pretty obvious to me that Brendan Dassey's confession was coerced and they took advantage of his intellectual deficits. That so called "confession" needs to be re-examined.
9
-
L
I think they are both wrongfully convicted. And someone really needs to find the right murderer. That 16 year old boy should never have been interviewed without either a lawyer or a parent. I just feel so bad for all the parent and family. Just very heart breaking.
8
-
C
I do not believe that Steven nor Brendan are guilty!
The coerced interview of Brendan as a minor, practically on the spectrum maybe not but clearly not capable of dodging two corrupt lawmen’s pathetic & shameful coercion tactics!
I am sincerely saddened for Steven, Brendan and their family as well as Teresa’s.
Wisconsin’s justice system is pathetic. Lack of real evidence through out.
The judge with his shameful, judgemental comments is appalling!!
I hope all of the people involved in the failed justice here have lived with that eating away at their soul ever since!
But hey, they got rid of that expensive lawsuit, now didnt they?!
Of course they won’t allow appeals! That might reopen the expensive lawsuit which affects the whole system and the town.
Karma will come for them.
JMHO
8
-
S
I am sick to my stomach. These men are innocent. This could happen to anyone.
5
-
G
This is a travesty! Steven and Brendan are innocent!
3
-
G
There is no way Steven or Brendan are guilty of this, it’s so obvious , what a complete mess for both of them. It’s a complete stitch up!
There is no evidence that makes sense apart from the fabrication from that corrupt system and officials . I hope they can both find a way to get to the truth.
3
-
T
Those two persons are innocent. It is obvious and hard to believe they were convicted and still not free.
1
-
L
No you didn’t. You watched a slanted documentary. The people who actually watched the trial found him guilty - which he is.
1
-
L
Guilty as sin.
1
-
J
I definitely think he is not guilty. Watching all making a murder i think we all know the two that did it but I think the police had it in for Steven because they didn't want him to get all that state money for the first wrongfully 18 years he did
1
-
U
Not guilty for both of course. It is rediculas that he won't get a new trial. Same for Dassey. Katz is disgusting.
-
Y
Per
personally I feel that the system is wrong and wether or not they did it no longer matters to those who watched a TV show. Remember Teresa H was survived by someone. So guilty or not no person directly involved this case will be be satisfied. # rewritelawtoequality
-
T
If you ever hear someone say” we live in the best country in the world” know that they’re lying to you.
-
L
I think they are innocent! The DA and his club let power go to their heads. You see the ( DA ) got caught slipping around……. Karma will get all the liers eventually!!!
-
F
Exactly what I thought. He is creepy.
-
G
We all know they're innocent. It would be nice if president Trump would pardon both of before he leaves the office
Watchlist Easy access to only the shows you care about — all in one simple place
Alerts Only important notifications — when a show is returning, when it becomes available to stream, and more.
Special Offers Exclusive products we release related to your favorite shows and streaming services