‘Making a Murderer': Brendan Dassey’s Former Lawyer Speaks Out on Conviction Being Overturned
“I expect the State will appeal,” attorney Len Kachinsky tells TheWrap
Rosemary Rossi | August 13, 2016 @ 2:27 PM
Last Updated: August 15, 2016 @ 1:27 PM
Netflix
“Making a Murderer” subject Brendan Dassey’s legal proceedings are not over, says his former lawyer Len Kachinsky, but the attorney won’t be participating.
“I will not be further involved in Dassey’s case,” Kachinsky told TheWrap. “I have no opinion as to his factual guilt or innocence. I expect the State will appeal.”
He added: “It should be noted that the ground on which the new trial was ordered was Judge Fox’s denial of a motion I filed and litigated to keep Dassey’s March 2006 statement out of evidence. So I did my job and kept Dassey’s option open.”
Nine years after Dassey and his uncle, Steven Avery, were found guilty in the murder of Teresa Halbach, Dassey’s conviction was overturned on Friday. Federal magistrate judge William E. Duffin granted Dassey’s writ for a petition of habeas corpus, finding that his imprisonment was unlawful because his confession to the murder was involuntary. In reaching that decision, Duffin wrote that the “misconduct” of Kachinsky, Dassey’s court-appointed attorney, was “indefensible.”
“Making a Murderer,” which has been a hit since it debuted last December on Netflix, suggested that Kachinsky made a deal that put his client behind bars when he should have tried to prove Dassey’s innocence.
While the criminal case against him may not be over, Dassey could sue police or even Kachinsky for millions of dollars, legal experts say, although winning won’t be easy.
“He could sue his lawyer for putting him in the hands of his investigators, who just ripped him a new one,” Steve Cron, a veteran criminal defense attorney and Pepperdine University law professor, told TheWrap. Cron added that Kachinsky had committed what amounted to “malpractice.”
It is difficult to determine how much of an influence the series and ensuing media coverage had on the ruling, especially since Dassey’s habeas petition was filed more than a year before the series debuted.
“My experience with federal judges is that they’re very careful about having outside influences affect their decisions,” attorney and UC Berkeley adjunct law professor Ramiah Brien said. “Especially in a case like this, I don’t think the judge would want the appearance that he was influenced by something other than what the attorneys were arguing in that brief.”
'Making A Murderer': Brendan Dassey's Road to Release (Photos)
Nine months after the release of "Making A Murderer," Brendan Dassey's conviction in the rape and murder of Teresa Halbach has been overturned. TheWrap looks back on the 11-year murder case that has captured America's attention and how Dassey ended up in prison with his uncle, Steven Avery.
Oct. 31, 2005: Teresa Halbach, a photographer in Manitowoc County, Wisconsin, goes missing after taking pictures of a car at Steven Avery's salvage yard. The next day, 16-year-old Brendan Dassey is questioned by county investigators. Dassey claims he had no contact with Halbach.
February 2006: Detectives Mark Wiegert and Tom Fassbender are told by Dassey's cousin, Kayla Avery, that Dassey had been "acting up lately." The detectives go to Dassey's high school and take him out of class for questioning.
March 1, 2006: Brendan Dassey is arrested for the murder of Teresa Halbach following an interrogation by police that resulted in Dassey giving a videotaped confession. A lawyer was not present during the questioning, and Dassey later told his mother that the investigators "got into his head." Two days later, he is charged with first degree murder, sexual assault and corpse mutilation
May 2006: A judge rules that Dassey's videotaped confession is admissible as evidence. That same day, his attorney, Len Kachinsky, arranges for his investigator, Michael O'Kelly, to meet with Dassey to convince him to confirm his confession and explain how the murder took place. Earlier emails showed Kachinsky explaining to O'Kelly that he sought to use Dassey to convict Avery. The following day, Wiegert and Fassbender question Dassey again without an attorney present.
June 2006: Dassey writes a letter to Judge Jerome Fox recanting his confession. Fox had previously declined Dassey's request for a new court-provided attorney, but after discovering that Kachinsky had allowed Dassey to be questioned by Wiegert and Fassbender alone, Fox removed Kachinsky from the case.
Feb.-Mar. 2007: Avery is tried and convicted of first degree murder. Dassey is not called as a witness during Avery's trial. He is sentenced to life in prison without parole.
April 2007: Brendan Dassey is tried and convicted on all counts and sentenced to 41 years to life in prison.
2010: Dassey requests a new trial on the grounds that his confession was made possible by Kachinsky and that the lawyer did not have his client's best interests in mind. His motion is denied.
2013: Dassey's request for a new trial and for a review of the original ruling are denied by the Wisconsin Court of Appeals and the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
October 2014: Lawyers from the Northwestern University School of Law file a petition for a writ of habeas corpus on Dassey's behalf in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin. The petition is meant to request a federal judge to investigate the legality of Dassey's arrest and conviction.
December 2015: Netflix releases "Making A Murderer," bringing national attention to the Halbach murder case. A few days after the release, legal briefs are filed for Dassey's petition.
Aug. 12, 2016: U.S. Magistrate William E. Duffin overturns Brendan Dassey's conviction. In a 91-page ruling, Dassey ruled that the questioning that led to Dassey's confession was in violation of his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination. Duffin also noted that Dassey was a learning-disabled high school student at the time of his confession, and that investigators made promises of leniency to Dassey that were not kept.
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After nine years in prison, the Netfllix docu-series subject may soon be set free
Nine months after the release of "Making A Murderer," Brendan Dassey's conviction in the rape and murder of Teresa Halbach has been overturned. TheWrap looks back on the 11-year murder case that has captured America's attention and how Dassey ended up in prison with his uncle, Steven Avery.
