GREEN BAY, WI -- Last week, a federal judge overturned Brendan Dassey's murder conviction in the 2005 death of Teresa Halbach.
Tonight, people across the country are asking: what's next for Dassey?
The countdown has begun on a 90-day window ordered by the judge in this overturned conviction, in which Dassey must be released from prison.
From here, legal analysts we spoke with say there are really three main options.
Option one: the state could accept the decision, and drop the case.
The state could also appeal the ruling to the 7th Circuit Federal Court of Appeals.
Or, the state could re-try Dassey in state court, which some say, without a confession, would be difficult.
Friday's overturning of Dassey's conviction was due to the judge's ruling that his confession, at the age of 16, was coerced by police. Many legal analysts and defense attorneys have debated his confession hotly, with particular emphasis on Dassey's limited cognitive reasoning.
"There isn't much left, says Dassey's former trial attorney Mark Fremgen. "There is no physical evidence to tie Brendan to the case. All the physical evidence--genetic testing, and forensic evidence--all links Steven Avery as the killer."
"If this is upheld by the Court of Appeals, and the state decides to retry it, then they're starting over from scratch," says defense attorney Avi Berk, who has followed the case closely since the beginning, "and then, they have to introduce evidence, other than the confession, to try to link him to this crime."
Analysts say another issue that could affect another trial for Dassey is the public's perspective on this case now that it's facing so much public scrutiny, due to the "Making a Murderer" documentary.
Fremgen says, even if the confession wasn't suppressed, a jury might be more open to the thought of improper police tactics in gathering evidence. He hopes Dassey's case will shine public light on proper interrogation techniques.
