Steven Avery's wrongful conviction and exoneration, Teresa Halbach's disappearance, the separate 2007 trials, and the appeals and commutation requests that followed.
1985–2004
Penny Beerntsen was attacked on July 29. Avery was convicted on December 14 of sexual assault, attempted murder and false imprisonment, and received a 32-year sentence. DNA testing would later identify a different attacker.
Testing of a hair from the 1985 attack identified Gregory Allen. On September 11, the court granted a joint request to dismiss the charges, and Avery was released after 18 years in prison.
Avery filed a federal civil-rights lawsuit against Manitowoc County and former county officials over the 1985 prosecution and imprisonment. He sought damages of up to $36 million.
2005–2006
Halbach, a 25-year-old photographer whose clients included Auto Trader, visited Avery Auto Salvage to photograph a vehicle. She disappeared that day.
Halbach's mother reported her missing on November 3. Volunteer searchers found her Toyota RAV4 at the salvage yard on November 5. Police secured the property and obtained a search warrant.
Police arrested Avery on November 9 on a firearm charge. On November 15, prosecutors charged him with first-degree intentional homicide and mutilating a corpse.
Avery settled his wrongful-conviction claims against Manitowoc County and the former officials. The federal court dismissed those claims while retaining jurisdiction over a dispute about his attorneys' fees.
Investigators questioned 16-year-old Brendan Dassey on March 1. His recorded statement implicated him in Halbach's death, and he was charged soon afterward. Dassey later recanted and challenged the statement as involuntary.
2007
After the February–March trial, the jury found Avery guilty of first-degree intentional homicide and firearm possession. It found him not guilty of mutilating a corpse.
In a separate trial, the jury found Dassey guilty of first-degree intentional homicide, mutilating a corpse and second-degree sexual assault, each as a party to a crime.
Judge Patrick Willis sentenced Avery to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for Halbach's murder.
Judge Jerome Fox sentenced Dassey to life imprisonment following the April verdicts.
2011–2018
The court rejected Avery's challenges concerning a search, exclusion of third-party liability evidence and the excusal of a deliberating juror. It affirmed the convictions and postconviction order.
The court affirmed the judgment and denial of postconviction relief, rejecting Dassey's challenges to the voluntariness of his confession and his former attorney's representation.
U.S. Magistrate Judge William Duffin held that Dassey's March 1 confession was involuntary and granted habeas relief. The order required release unless Wisconsin initiated a retrial, and provided for a stay if the state appealed.
Sitting en banc, the federal appeals court reversed and directed dismissal of Dassey's petition. The majority held that the state court's voluntariness ruling survived the deferential standard governing federal habeas review.
The Supreme Court denied Dassey's petition for certiorari, leaving the Seventh Circuit's decision in place.
2021–2026
Wisconsin's Court of Appeals affirmed the circuit court's denial of Avery's postconviction motions, leaving his convictions in place.
The Court of Appeals affirmed denial of Avery's motion without an evidentiary hearing, holding that it was insufficiently pleaded. The Wisconsin Supreme Court denied review on May 21.
Dassey submitted a juvenile-life commutation application on September 2; Avery submitted his application on September 10. Both sought a reduction of the sentences they are serving through Wisconsin's clemency process.