What Were Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey Convicted Of?
Disclaimer: This article contains mentions of murder and assault. Reader discretion is advised.
In 2007, Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey were convicted in connection to the 2005 rape and murder of Teresa Halbach. Avery was convicted of being a party to the first-degree intentional homicide of the freelance photographer as well as of possessing firearms. Brendan Dassey, Avery’s nephew, was found guilty of helping his uncle sexually assault and murder Halbach. Halbach’s burned-down remains were found in a burn pit behind Avery’s garage.
According to court documents, Teresa Halbach was reported missing on November 3, 2005. After the search began, her car was found in the Avery Auto Salvage property. Police also recovered Halbach’s and Avery’s blood in the car. Burned bone fragments were found in and around the burn pit.
Her cell phone and camera were also found in the garage, along with a bullet and bullet fragments, which were shot from a rifle owned by Avery. The bullets had Halbach’s DNA on them. Investigators also recovered her car keys from Steven Avery’s bedroom in his trailer.
Before his conviction in Teresa Halbach’s assault and murder, Steven Avery had been wrongly convicted in December 1985 of the rape of Penny Ann Beerntsen. According to the National Registry of Exonerations, Beerntsen was grabbed and sexually assaulted before she was choked and left unconscious in the woods in July 1985. During the trial, she identified Avery as her attacker. Based on her description, the identification happened after a series of men were listed.
He was found to be innocent in 2003, 18 years into his sentence, after DNA evidence proved that another man, Gregory Allen, was the one who raped Beerntsen. At that time, Allen was already serving a 60-year sentence for his crimes.
How many years in prison were Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey sentenced to?
Both Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey were sentenced to life in prison. They are currently serving sentences that were announced in separate trials. Dassey’s lawyers argued that he was coerced into confessing to the multiple crimes that he was convicted of. He was only 16 years old at the time of the confession.
Although the court narrowly overturned his conviction and reconsidered the confessions, he was sentenced again. As per Rolling Stones, the Supreme Court refused to weigh in on the case. Dassey’s voluntary confession had already been proved in court, and “it was reasonable.”
CBS News reported that according to the Innocence Project, several convictions that were overturned or dismissed after verification of DNA evidence were supported by confessions from the accused. “Mental limitations” and intimidation or threats from law enforcement are among the reasons cited for false confessions.
When Avery was released after his false conviction in 2003, he was given $25,000 as maximum compensation from the state. He additionally filed a federal lawsuit for $36 million from Manitowoc County. However, he settled the lawsuit with $400,000. Notably, several judicial reforms in criminal identification procedures were introduced after Steven Avery was found to have been wrongly convicted in 1985.
“Return to Manitowoc County” is an episode of Dateline: Secrets Uncovered that was first aired on November 5, 2018. It revolves around the murder of Teresa Halbach and was re-aired on Oxygen on March 6, 2024.
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