SIXTH HOUR: The Wrongful Conviction of Brendan Dassey

It’s lawful for police to use a variety of psychological techniques to induce suspects to confess including lying about evidence, accusatory questioning, and stomping their size tens up the nine steps of the REID technique because well, that’s what they’ve been taught. But times are a’changing.

In this episode of the Sixth Hour, my guests provide alternative, strategic interrogation practices grounded in science and rooted in human...

Did you walk past, or did you stop? Were you called to act – to advocate - to just do something, because doing nothing felt like a crime?

When Making a Murderer was unleashed on an unsuspecting seasonal audience in the December of 2015, it triggered a gut punch for millions of people and birthed a community of criminal justice activists that continues to thrive five-plus years on.

On this episode of the Sixth Hour, I’m joined by St...

“I’ll be honest if somebody waives their Miranda rights, and we know how to get people to waive their Miranda rights – we know how to manipulate the hell out of them …” shares former homicide detective, author, reformer, and wrongful conviction expert James Trainum. “You could almost put pins under their fingernails and it’s [confession] still voluntary because of that paper that they sign,” he adds.

Joining the Sixth Hour, James T...

When the federal judges that made up the en banc majority found that while there were factors that supported finding Brendan Dassey’s confession involuntary; that his confession was riddled with inconsistencies and that interrogators did offer up broad assurances that honesty would be rewarded with leniency, the slim majority determined that this was not enough to uphold what four other federal judges found to be a “profound miscar...

“It was rumoured that there were people in the department of justice here saying, ‘leave it alone, don’t take it further,’ there are people who were offended but you know we got to have our win,” recalls Professor Michele LaVigne. As Brendan’s post-conviction appeal steamrolled its way through the federal courts the Wisconsin legal fraternity was as split as the en banc majority who had abandoned their call to conscience.

In this e...

“Because we could all watch it and we could see it and we could see that slow transformation from no to yes, it just seemed to typify in a way everything that is wrong with police interrogation of children in this country,” said Professor Marsha Levick.

As Brendan Dassey’s case hurled through the federal appellate court system, a chorus of eminent voices joined the fight for justice as a day of reckoning with the United States Supr...

How culpable was the media in the wrongful conviction of Brendan Dassey? Did the infamous March 2nd press conference directed by DA Kratz prejudice, not just a potential jury pool but the entire state of Wisconsin? Destroying Brendan Dassey’s presumption of innocence with every word uttered Kratz tightened the shackles on young Brendan’s wrists and ankles as future fact finders and the local community recoiled in horror. With his f...

The trial judge says, “so Miranda warnings are not an issue, so, mirandizing is not an issue, and neither is the custodial or non-custodial … okay moving on.” Now it’s in the record, he has sealed the fate. Brendan has had some amazing attorneys work on his case, but I don’t care how good they are that single interchange made their job almost insurmountable, says Dean Brian Gallini.

In the first episode of season two, Dean Brian Ga...

This is the story of the wrongful conviction of Brendan Dassey. Confined to a system that provides little more than a modicum of due process for the children caught in the ebb and flow of flawed investigations, judicial ignorance, and spurious interrogation techniques, Brendan readies himself for his 15th year of wrongful incarceration as COVID-19 becomes another prong to the cruel and unusual punishment he continues to endure. Joi...

"In a case where the person is genuinely innocent, it's not mercy it's straight-up justice. In a case like Brendan's, you can make the case for his release either on mercy or justice," shares Professor Mark Osler.

October 2nd, 2019, Brendan Dassey's legal team filed a petition for clemency with Governor Tony Evers to grant Brendan a pardon or commute his sentence to time served. A coalition of 250 voices signed an open letter suppo...

"We are so cruel, where we pretend to care so deeply about the rule of law - that we let this go through. That somewhere there wasn't a responsible adult saying that's enough, that is enough," exclaims Professor Michele LaVigne. A distinguished clinical professor of law, a leader in the law and co-author of Under the Hood: Brendan Dassey, Language Impairments, and Judicial Ignorance. Professor Lavigne joins the Sixth Hour to peel b...

"He believes you did it, Brendan," said Brendan's mother Barb. Brendan Dassey knew nothing of his Sixth Amendment right to effective counsel or that it should entail zealous advocacy - all Brendan knew was that his attorney Len Kachinsky thought him guilty ... and liked cats. Orchestrating his own downfall as he tried to turn Brendan as states witness, Kachinsky was removed and replaced by the flawed Fremgen and Edelstein. From col...

We all have a breaking point. However, for 16-year-old Brendan Dassey, all that was needed was praise, feigned parental concern, and susceptibility to an interrogation technique used to elicit confessions from seasoned adult criminals. The mix was devastating for Brendan.  As the first false confession expert to testify on Brendan's behalf in 2010, Dr. Richard Leo joins the Sixth Hour to illustrate the errors inherent in the March ...