Where are Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey now?

Wisconsin convict and his nephew featured
in Netflix series Making a Murderer

In Depth

The two US men – Avery and his nephew Dassey – were found guilty
of the 2005 rape and murder of Teresa Halbach, a 25-year-old
photographer, in 2007. Their cases became notorious thanks to
Making a Murderer, which left some viewers convinced they had been
framed.

The ten-part series, which took Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos
ten years to make, revealed that Avery was in the process of suing
local law enforcement over a previous wrongful rape and attempted
murder conviction, for which he spent 18 years in jail, when the
new charge was brought.

The victim had visited Avery’s scrapyard and his blood was found
on the seats of her car after her death. However, his attorney
discovered that a vial of his blood held by police since the 1980s
because of the previous rape conviction, had been tampered
with.

Avery’s conviction also hinged on the testimony of his nephew
and was later retracted. Dassey, whose IQ is very low and who was
just 16 at the time of the killing, said he had been coerced into
making his confession.

Where is Steven Avery now?

The simple answer is: in prison. Avery, now 55, is incarcerated
for life in Waupun Correctional Institution, Wisconsin. He has
twice requested a new trial, through his lawyers, but has so far
been denied the opportunity. On Tuesday, the US state objected to
Avery’s request that a new judge be assigned to consider his case,
NBC reported.

And where is Brendan Dassey?

Dassey, now 28, is locked up in Columbia Correctional
Institution, serving a life sentence for murder, sexual assault and
mutilation of a corpse. On Monday, CNN reported that the US Supreme Court had
decline to take up his case – even though a federal judge ruled in
2016 that he had been coerced and ordered him released. He was
not.

Will there be another series of Making a Murderer?

There are two follow-up series to choose from, though neither
has been released yet. Netflix announced in 2016 that it was making
a second series, focusing on the appeal process and describing what
has happened since the 2015 show aired.

Meanwhile, filmmaker Shawn Rech is making an eight-part series
looking at the case from the point of view of the police and
prosecutors, saying the original show as “one-sided”. Rech’s
Convicting a Murderer is not affiliated with Netflix, says magazine
site Joe.