Nephew in 'Making a Murderer' has conviction thrown out

(AP) — A judge overturned the conviction of a Wisconsin man found guilty of helping his uncle kill a woman in a case profiled in the Netflix series "Making a Murderer," ruling that investigators coerced a confession using deceptive tactics.

Dassey's case burst into the public's consciousness with the popularity of the Netflix series, which debuted in December.

The filmmakers cast doubt on the legal process used to convict Dassey and his uncle, Steven Avery, in the death of Teresa Halbach, and their work sparked national interest and conjecture.

Dassey was convicted of first-degree intentional homicide, second-degree sexual assault, and mutilation of a corpse in Halbach's killing.

After being freed, he had a $36 million lawsuit pending against public officials when Halbach disappeared on Halloween 2005.

The judge said that Dassey's confession to police in 2006 was "so clearly involuntary" that a state appeals court ruling to the contrary was an unreasonable application of established federal law.