Attorneys: Dassey unconstitutionally imprisoned, should be released

Alison Dirr | USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin

Show Caption Hide Caption Brendan Dassey's Confession Four months after the Teresa Halbach murder, Steven Avery's 16-year-old nephew Brendan Dassey implicates himself in the brutal rape and murder. But was Dassey's confession real or spoon fed by a pair of detectives?

CHICAGO - The legal wrangling over the request for Brendan Dassey's conditional release from prison continued Tuesday with an additional filing by his attorneys.

"The State of Wisconsin has asked this Court to take an extraordinary step: to block the district court’s order releasing an unconstitutionally incarcerated man" while the state appeals the overturning of his conviction, attorney Laura Nirider wrote in Tuesday's filing. She noted that two federal courts found his conviction unconstitutional.

The question before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit is whether to release Dassey, with conditions, while the state appeals its latest loss in federal court. In a 2-1 decision Thursday, a Seventh Circuit panel upheld a district court decision that overturned Dassey's conviction in the 2005 murder of Teresa Halbach.

Nirider called it "common practice" to grant bond to those in Dassey's legal position.

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Nirider wrote that Dassey would be on supervised released and supported by a team of social workers who have developed plans for his housing, employment, counseling and security.

Additionally, she wrote, he is not a public safety threat: "He had no criminal record prior to the instant case; his conviction for murder was obtained unconstitutionally and the evidence supporting it has been cast into 'significant doubt' by the district court ... and his prison records demonstrate him to be a nonviolent, cooperative, and peaceful man."

The litigation the state intends to pursue will last "well over a year," and the state is "highly unlikely" to succeed in its efforts to reverse the federal courts' rulings, she wrote.

This marks the second time the issue of Dassey's release has been argued since U.S. Magistrate William Duffin overturned his conviction in August after finding that Dassey's confession was involuntary.

In November, a different Seventh Circuit panel halted a decision by Duffin to release him. It did not provide a rationale at that time.

The difference between this latest request and the first is that the Seventh Circuit has now heard his case and upheld the lower court decision to overturn his conviction.

When someone is entitled to a new trial, that means the presumption of innocence is restored, said Dean Strang, who defended Dassey's uncle Steven Avery in Halbach's murder.

Strang, who was a federal defender for Wisconsin, declined to comment directly on Dassey's case.

The court will either lift the November decision to halt his release or it will leave it in place, he said. If it decides to release him, the Seventh Circuit can set conditions or could send the case back to Duffin to determine the conditions of release.

Alison Dirr: 920-996-7266 or adirr@gannett.com; on Twitter @AlisonDirr