Brendan Dassey has been denied clemency by Wisconsin judge
It’s been 12 years since Brendan Dassey was convicted of the first-degree homicide, rape, and mutilation of a corpse, and has been sentenced life imprisonment.
A request letter for the clemency was put up in front of the Wisconsin governor by Dassey’s legal team. Dassey wrote in the letter requesting the governor to pardon him because he is innocent and wants to go home.
As per the information which was given by Dassey’s lawyer Laura Nirider to The New York Times, the request letter included an audio interview of Dassey for a podcast of wrongful convictions. It also had a petition undersigned by ten thousand supporters and an open letter that contained signatures of hundreds of legal and psychological experts, former police officials, and prosecutors and clemency experts.
However, the Wisconsin governor Tony Evers rejected the pardon request. In an unsigned letter dated December 17, the governor’s pardon advisory wrote that Dassey was ineligible for clemency and the governor would not consider any further commutations. The letter specifically mentioned that it hasn’t been even 5 years since Dassey completed his entire sentence for the conviction he wants to be pardoned. He is also required to be registered as the sex offender, the letter said.
Disappointed with the governor’s decision, Dassey’s lawyers said that if the board had reviewed the petition on merits, it would have seen what more than 250 national experts and millions of common people across the globe can see. Calling it a terrible miscarriage of justice, the lawyers signed off.
Picture: Fox News
Dassey, who is now 30, is an American from Manitowoc County, Wisconsin, who was convicted for the assault and murder of Teresa Halbach, a magazine photographer, in 2005 at the age of 16. He was sentenced for his alleged participation in the crime with his uncle Steven Avery.
Netflix had recently released a documentary on Dassey’s case ‘Making a Murderer’ in 2016. The documentary gained global critical acclaim, attracted several people towards the case, and sparked huge international debate over his conviction, which is based on what’s being called the unconstitutional and doubtful interrogation and investigation.