Major developments in Steven Avery, Brendan Dassey appeals expected in May

APPLETON - Major developments are anticipated in May in the closely watched appeals of convicted killers Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey.

Avery and Dassey were convicted in the 2005 murder of Teresa Halbach, and the cases were the subject of the popular Netflix docu-series “Making a Murderer." Both are serving life terms at Wisconsin prisons.

Here’s the breakdown of what's scheduled to happen this month:

Avery’s case

Attorney Kathleen Zellner of suburban Chicago has a May 21 deadline to file a legal brief with the Wisconsin Court of Appeals District 2. The appeal was filed in response to an Oct. 3 ruling by Sheboygan County Circuit Court Judge Angela Sutkiewicz that Avery had not met the legal standard to receive a new trial.

After that decision, Zellner posted this on Twitter: “The battle continues. We have new evidence & new witnesses. An innocent person never quits nor do we.”

The deadline had been set for March 30, but was extended at the request of Zellner, who has argued that new evidence points away from Avery as Halbach’s killer and claims that authorities planted evidence.

The Wisconsin Department of Justice has repeatedly rejected those claims, and says Avery’s guilt is firmly established.

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“DOJ will continue to vigorously defend Avery’s conviction, which was handed down by a jury of his peers,” Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel said in the wake of the ruling by Sutkiewicz.

After Zellner’s brief is filed, the Department of Justice will have an opportunity to file a response brief. The appeals court will eventually issue a ruling, which could be appealed to the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

Dassey’s case

The Wisconsin Department of Justice has a May 10 deadline to file a response to Dassey’s petition for a writ of certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court — a brief asking the high court to hear his case.

Dassey’s attorneys filed the petition for review with the Supreme Court in mid-February. That was followed several weeks later by six friend-of-the-court briefs from prosecutors, law professors and juvenile justice advocates.

Four justices must vote to grant a petition.

Dassey’s supporters say his confession to detectives when he was 16 years old was coerced and involuntary due to his age, low IQ, developmental immaturity and educational impairments.

The Department of Justice has maintained throughout Dassey’s post-conviction proceedings that the questioning by detectives was not coercive and his confession wasn't tainted.

The brief from the Department of Justice will move the case closer to a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court. A limited number of petitions for review are granted annually by the high court.