MANITOWOC, Wis. — “Making a Murderer” subject Steven Avery’s fight for a new trial will be moved to the Wisconsin Court of Appeals, according to his attorney.
Avery’s post-conviction attorney Kathleen Zellner filed a notice of Aug. 25, after a trial judge denied her latest claim that the state violated Avery’s right to a fair trial in the 2005 murder of 25-year-old photographer Teresa Halbach.
Zeller claims the trial court failed to allow Avery’s lawyers Jerry Buting and Dean Strang to name other suspects, namely Avery’s nephew Bobby Dassey.
A witness, according to Zellner, claims he saw Bobby Dassey pushing Halbach’s vehicle on the Avery property in 2005, before the Toyota was found in the family’s salvage yard.
Sheboygan County Judge Angela Sutkiewicz ruled that while the witness claims he saw Bobby Dassey, nothing links Dassey to Halbach’s Oct. 31, 2005, murder.
“Evidence that simply affords a possible ground of suspicion against a third party is not admissible,” the judge wrote in her 31-page decision released Aug. 22.
Bobby Dassey is the older brother of Brendan Dassey, who’s also serving a life sentence in Halbach’s death. Brendan Dassey confessed to helping his uncle Steven Avery kill Halbach and burn her body in a bonfire. Dassey’s claim that his confession was coerced made it through the federal courts before the United States Supreme Court refused to hear the case.
Both Dassey and Avery remain in prison, Avery without parole. Dassey is eligible for early release in 2048.