Appeals court denies new trial for Dassey

By: Associated Press//January 30, 2013//

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MADISON, Wis. (AP) – A state appeals court has rejected Brendan Dassey’s request for a new trial on charges that he helped kill a young woman in 2005 in one of Wisconsin’s most notorious crimes.

Dassey was sentenced to life with no parole for 41 years after being convicted in 2007 of first-degree intentional homicide, second-degree sexual assault, and mutilation of a corpse in the killing of Teresa Halbach in Manitowoc County.

The killing garnered extraordinary attention partly because another person convicted, Dassey’s uncle Steven Avery, had spent 18 years in prison for rape before DNA samples proved another man committed the crime.

Dassey’s defense attorneys argued that police coerced his confession and that his trial attorneys were ineffective.

The 2nd District Court of Appeals on Wednesday rejected those arguments, upholding Dassey’s convictions. Click here to subscribe to Wisconsin Law Journal today

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