Making a Murderer’s Brendan Dassey’s conviction has been overturned… here’s everything you need to know about him
Brendan Dassey and his uncle Steven Avery were the subjects of the Netflix documentary
EVEN if you don't know who he is, you've probably read that Brendan Dassey's 2007 murder conviction was overturned by a federal judge in Wisconsin on Friday.
But who is the 26-year-old man and why has this won headlines all over the world?
Brendan and his uncle Steven Avery were the subjects of 2015 Netflix documentary Making a Murderer.
The 10-part series began by looking at Steven, now 54, from Winsconsin.
He served 18 years in prison for the attempted murder of Penny Beernsten before being exonerated in 2003.
Just two years later, he was taken into custody once again for the murder of photographer Teresa Halbach.
In 2007 he was found guilty of the crime and he remains in prison.
His nephew Brendan was also charged in relation to the murder and was imprisoned in 2007. He's currently at the Columbia Correctional Facility in Wisconsin.
On Friday August 12 a judge overturned that conviction, which means Brendan will go free in 90 days unless the state retries him or there's an appeal.
Brendan was only 17 when he was handed a life sentence for murder, and he has learning difficulties.
During his ruling on Friday, Judge William Duffin explained police had made false promises to Brendan.
When taken into account along with this learning difficulties and age, the judge found they meant his confession was "involuntary".
Brendan was convicted of being party to first-degree intentional homicide, mutilation of a corpse and second-degree sexual assault.
He was handed a life with no parole for 41 years sentence, but he insists he is innocent.
Teresa was reported missing on November 3 2005 and on November 10 her charred remains were found on the grounds of the Avery property.
Her car and other personal effects were discovered too, resulting in Steven being charged with her murder, mutilation of a corpse, and illegal possession of a firearm.
His legal team maintain his innocence, claiming the evidence was planted.
Their argument is that the police department was angry over a lawsuit Steven had filed relating to his previous wrongful conviction.
Brendan was Steven's alibi, and so he was questioned.
Many of the doubts about his conviction stem from the way he was interrogated, which featured on Making a Murderer.
Then 16, he was interrogated several times over two days - at his school, the police station and at the family's lodge.
Brendan didn't have a lawyer, parent or responsible adult with him, and a technique developed to put pressure on suspects was used.
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The teenager to being a co-conspirator in the rape and murder, but he later recanted that. He claimed detectives kept asking him the same thing until he said what they wanted to hear.
His legal team have pointed out that there isn't any DNA evidence putting him at the scene.
It's also been argued that his description of the murder couldn't be what happened as it would have involved Teresa's blood being spilt, and none was found where Brendan claimed it took place.
Part of the evidence against him came from his cousin Kayla, who told a school counsellor Steven had asked one of her cousins to help move a body.
At Brendan's trial, Kayla said she'd lied.
This was all included in the documentary, which sparked questions about coercion.
Also featured was footage of Brendan's first lawyer Mike O'Kelly, who was eventually removed from the case on the request of Brendan's mother Barb.
Some of Mike's techniques were called into question by the documentary, including his request that Brendan sign a form stating he was sorry for his actions. This can be seen as admission of guilt in court.
Brendan's trial was also shown on the documentary.
He was tried as an adult even though he had learning problems, and was handed his sentence aged 17 years and six months.
Making a Murderer brought Brendan's case into the public eye, with many speaking out to condemn his conviction.
One of those was Steven Drizin, Professor of law at Northwestern University, who told BBC's Today programme: "I thought that this was a confession that was the result of police coercion.
"These detectives had taken advantage of a young man who had severe learning difficulties.
"The only facts in the confession had been fed to him by the investigators."
Steven remains in prison at the Waupan Correctional Institution in Wisconsin, but there is also a campaign to have his conviction overturned.
Kathleen Zellner began representing him in January and has launched an appeal on his behalf.
A second series of Making A Murderer is in the works and will focus on the work Brendan and Steven's legal teams have been doing.