Making a Murderer Team Responds to Brendan Dassey's Overturned Conviction

The team behind Netflix’s docu-series Making a Murder is speaking out just hours after a massive update in Brendan Dassey‘s case was revealed.

“Today was a major development for the subjects in our story and this recent news shows the criminal justice system at work,” a statement for Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos read.

“As we have done for the past 10 years, we will continue to document the story as it unfolds, and follow it wherever it may lead.”

Meanwhile, Brendan’s team of attorneys released the following statement after today’s huge news:

“It has taken a decade but the law is finally bending toward justice in the case of Brendan Dassey…We look forward to taking the appropriate next steps to secure Brendan’s release from prison as soon as possible and are thrilled for him.”

Steven Avery‘s team released the following statement to E! News as well: “We are thrilled for Brendan Dassey that his conviction has been overturned.  We fully expected this outcome from an unbiased court that carefully examined his confession.  I was just visiting Steven Avery and he is so happy for Brendan.  We know when an unbiased court reviews all of the new evidence we have, Steven will have his conviction overturned as well.”

A federal judge overturned the conviction on Friday, Aug. 12, ordering that Dassey should be “released from custody unless, within 90 days of the date of this decision, the State initiates proceedings to retry him.”

Dassey was convicted of homicide and sexual assault in 2007, following the murder of photographer Teresa Halback in 2005. He was sentenced to life in prison. Although he wasn’t 18 years old at the time, he was questioned without an adult present and ultimately confessed to killing Halbach with his uncle, Steven Avery. The federal judge who overturned Dassey’s conviction, U.S. Magistrate William Duffin, criticized investigators for making false promises to the then-teen during his investigation.

“These repeated false promises, when considered in conjunction with all relevant factors, most especially Dassey’s age, intellectual deficits, and the absence of a supportive adult, rendered Dassey’s confession involuntary under the Fifth and Fourteenth amendments,” the judge wrote in his decision.

In July, the Making a Murderer team announced that they would be filming more episodes of their Netflix series. “We are extremely grateful for the tremendous response to, and support of, the series. The viewers’ interest and attention has ensured that the story is not over, and we are fully committed to continuing to document events as they unfold, Ricciardi and Demos said in a joint statement.

In a press release, Netflix revealed that the series will go “back inside the story of convicted murderer Steven Avery, and his co-defendant, Brendan Dassey, as their respective investigative and legal teams challenge their convictions and the State fights to have the convictions and life sentences upheld.”