Federal court blocks release of Brendan Dassey from ‘Making a Murderer’

A Wisconsin prison inmate whose case was featured in the Netflix series “Making a Murderer” will stay behind bars while state attorneys appeal a decision overturning his conviction, a panel of federal appellate judges ruled Thursday.

Brendan Dassey’s release from prison appeared imminent right up until the three-judge panel from the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago issued its decision. Television crews and reporters were staking out the prison in Portage where Dassey is being held, waiting for him to walk out at any minute, when the ruling came down at midday.

Dassey, 27, was sentenced to life in prison in 2007 in the death of photographer Teresa Halbach two years earlier.

In August, a federal judge overturned Dassey’s conviction, ruling investigators coerced him into confessing. Wisconsin’s Department of Justice appealed that decision to the 7th Circuit.

The judge on Wednesday ordered Dassey released from prison by 8 p.m. on Friday. The DOJ filed an emergency motion with the 7th Circuit hours later seeking to block the release.