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 "Making a Murderer" series that 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, who is now 26, was 16 when Halbach, a photographer, was killed in 2005 after she went to the Avery family auto salvage yard to take pictures of some vehicles.

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

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.

Netflix last month announced that new episodes of "Making a Murderer" were in production to follow appeals by both Avery and Dassey.